


Aether

by Yo_Hows_It_Going



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Adventure, Canon Compliant, Family, Foul Language, Friendship, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-01-22 17:49:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 43,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21306092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yo_Hows_It_Going/pseuds/Yo_Hows_It_Going
Summary: In the patterns of the cosmos, Aether is the elusive fifth element that has circular motion vs. fixed elementals that moved in lines. Effectively, the Aether does not follow any particular rule of energy, but rather it IS the rule.
Relationships: Zuko (Avatar)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 19





	1. The Story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, how's it going. So a little more than a couple of things before we start.
> 
> 1) I'm not the best writer in the world. I make mistakes...lots of them. Feel free to let me know of any of these mistakes by whichever means you like, and I will try to fix them along with the next update.
> 
> 2) The first three chapters are going to be a flashback like thing. Just a few things I have to set up before getting into the meat of the story. There will be a severe lack of Avatar-ish things, so please bear with me.
> 
> 3) Have a nice flight; it might be a long one

Long ago, in a distant land, evil spirits roamed free, causing chaos throughout the world. At the heart of all the evil was Vaatu, the spirit of chaos and darkness. Vaatu and his army forced humans and animals alike to fight for the land they lived on, enslaving those that were weak. The sky's turned a blood-red as death, chaos, and destruction ravaged the world.

Tǒngyī, the spirit of harmony, battled hard with her armies to defeat Vaatu and end his reign of terror but to no avail. Having no other choice, she turned to the great lion turtles to request their help. Unfortunately, they alone were still not powerful enough to bring balance to the world. She begged the turtles. There must be something that they could do to restore balance to the world. The lion turtles, feeling a bit sorry for the pleading spirit, directed them to an ancient sleeping spirit said to be more potent than all of them combined. He alone could put an end to the madness. She asked the name and location of this mighty spirit, but the turtles could only answer with the words 'He is above. Be warned he is not the friendliest of spirits.' Tǒngyī took the words in a literal sense as she flew above to the celestial plain to meet with this nameless spirit.

Upon entering the plain, the spirit felt a presence so strong, moving forward felt like trying to push a mountain, something she had never felt before. With some struggle, she followed the force until finally, she found herself upon a large building with purple light emitting from every window. The building made her look like an ant as she entered. It was empty other than one raised platform where a strange creature lay in the middle. She had been alive in the spirit and physical world for a long time, but she had never seen a beast like this. Its body and head resembled that of a tiger with white fur and black stripes, but instead of tiger whiskers and feet, they were that of a dragon. Mounted on its back was the shell of a turtle and from that shell, two wings that resembled a phoenix. Around the creature's neck was a black cauldron filled with dirt.

Tǒngyī approached the beast with caution. She told the spirit that the world has been thrown into chaos and asked if the spirit could help. The creature paid no mind, staying in its sleeping position. She once again pleaded with the spirit asking for its help but was once again ignored. Annoyed with its lack of a response, Tǒngyī shouted at him. He had no business being a celestial spirit if he was going to let the world sink into darkness. It was a divine spirit's duty to protect the world below, not lead in its destruction.

This statement seemed to get to the beast as he slowly opened its eyes and un-tucked its body from its sleeping position. The beast's size seemed to increase as it stood. He questioned the smaller spirits presence with a booming voice asking why he should help those who abuse power, those who are doomed to repeat history over and over again. Tǒngyī asked to give the planet another chance, let the people prove that they can be peaceful. The beast remarked that they have had several opportunities to prove themselves and have failed every time. It would be better if the world died and started over with something new. Angered by this, she yelled at the spirit, saying he couldn't do that. There are still innocent beings that don't deserve to die. The beast scoffed at the notion and turned away from the small spirit.

Tǒngyī tried asking again for help but got no answer. Angered, she turned away to leave but not before insulting the beast, saying he was selfish and useless to the planet and humanity. Outraged by the comment, the spirit quickly turned and roared. He agreed to help, but it would come at a hefty price.

"Oh my, look at the time," a woman with long red hair stated, looking at the Spiderman digital clock. She closed the large book in her pale hands. Her blue eyes fixed themselves onto the small children sitting in the same bed, both with wide eyes. The young boy had dark brown curly hair that formed a short fluffy afro. His skin mimicked the color of creamed coffee while his eyes were dark brown. The little girl next to her brother had the same skin tone but had curly dark red hair. Her eyes were two different colors, one grey and one brown like her brothers.

"Aw, c'mon, mom! You can't just end it right there," the seven-year-old boy cried, pulling at his short hair while dramatically falling back onto his pillows.

"Yeah! That's not fair! You always have to finish a story, or else the story monsters will eat your feet," a four-year-old girl explained, crossing her arms.

"And who told you that," their mother mimicked crossing her arms, raising an eyebrow?

"Daddy did, of course! He said he almost got attacked by story monsters when he was a kid."

"Monsters aren't real, you dumbo," the boy blurted, glaring at his sister.

"Hey, I'm not a dumbo. My ears are not that big," Trinity whined back, cupping her hands over her ears.

"That doesn't mean big ears. That means you're stupid!"

"Hey, hey, hey, cut it out, you two. Nathan, what did I say about calling your sister that?" Their mother scolded with a stern voice.

"Sorry, Mom."

"I'm not stupid. Monsters are real. I've seen them before!"

"They are not!" Nathan shouted back.

"Stop it, both of you!" She stood up, walking over to the bed to sit in-between the two kids.

"Trinity, if you see a monster, your big brother will protect you, won't he?"

The young boy stared at his mother with wide eyes, "Mom, if I see a monster, I think I'm gonna run."

His mother's eyebrow twitched. "Not without grabbing your sister, you're not. Now its bedtime, and we have to get up early tomorrow."

"What are we doing tomorrow?" Nathan asked as his sister shuffled out of his bed and into her own.

"We're going to see your grandmother tomorrow, remember?"

"Man, not grandma, her house smells like old fish," Nathan groaned, crossing his arms over his chest pouting.

"Yeah! Old fish and dog buns," Trinity chimed in from under her blanket.

"Now, where in the world did you hear that from!?"

"Daddy...," both kids stated flatly in unison.

"Just because her house smells like old fish and... dog...buns doesn't mean we can never visit her besides she always gives you guys ice cream," their mother said, putting the book away before walking over to the two kids.

"Yay, ice cream! Remember last time, mommy, when we went to the mall and got the superman ice cream, and it tasted like fruits," Trinity squealed.

"Yes, dear," she chuckled, walking over to her daughter. She pulled the blanket off Trinity's head and draping it over her.

"Can we finish the story when we get back from grandma's house," Nathan yawned. His mother walked over to him, pulled the covers over him, gave him a gentle kiss on the forehead. "Of course, we can, dear, when we get back." With that, she walked over to the bedroom door and flicked the light switch off, leaving just the little night light.

"Goodnight, both of you, I love you," she said before closing the door. She heard two small voices saying goodnight, and I love you too as she walked down the hall into the living room. There sat her husband dressed in pajama pants, watching some random show on the television. His darker brown skin glowed from the light as he looked over at his wife, scratching the small afro forming on the top of his head. She plopped on the couch next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"They both asleep?" he asked, placing a light kiss on her forehead.

"Yup, after some protest. I didn't get to finish their story."

"Which one did you tell them this time?" he chuckled.

"The one about the spirits."

"I thought we agreed not to tell that one anymore, remember? It gave Trinity that horrible nightmare, twice."

"Victor, you know why I have to tell that story to her." Her voice was showing more concern than anger.

"Ella, I've told you this a thousand times I'm not going to let our daughter be taken away by anything. I don't care who or what it is."

"It may not be our choice, Vic. She has the eyes of the spirits. Last time that happened in my family, my great-grandmother disappeared."

"Or she has a full heterochromia iridis, which plenty of humans on this earth have, and your great-grandmother is just as crazy as your mother," Victor snapped back, looking down at Ella. He saw the disappointed look on her face and sighed, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

"Listen, we've had this little debate over and over again for four years, and I'd rather it not continue until we're dead and gone," he gently grabbed her chin and turned her head slightly to face him.

"I know you feel an obligation to tell that story to her, but can we at least wait until she's Nathen's age, just so she doesn't have the nightmares, please." He pleaded to her, looking into her eyes. Ella looked back at him; his brown eyes were digging their way into her very soul. She slowly nodded her head in agreement breaking the intense stare, "Fine, but as soon as she's seven, I'm telling it to her every night."

"I am completely okay with that," he said.

Both in agreement, they comfortable on the couch and watched the TV. "By the way," Ella questioned, turning her head to Victor?

"Hmm?"

"Story monsters, eating feet?"

Victor let out a small laugh, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Meanwhile, in the kid's room, a small purple light began to fill the room. The bright light filled the space, collecting itself next to the sleeping girl's bed and formed into a female human-like figure. The figure reached for the girl but stopped just before touching her cheek.

"You are still too young, but soon my child, you will follow." The soft voice echoed as the light dispersed, eventually disappearing into the girl again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go friends, the first chapter of the flashback. Thank you so so much for reading.


	2. The Trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, how's it going, glad you came back!

"Hurry up, guys. We're late!" Ella shouted from the front door.

Two small children ran down the hall bundled up like marshmallows in their winter clothes. Ella knelt to make sure coats were zipped and adequately buttoned. Victor trudged down the hall with two large duffle bags in each hand, two smaller backpacks on each shoulder.

"You think they have enough clothing, hun? At this point, I think they might bounce away."

"Oh, oh, I wanna bounce like a bouncy ball," Trinity cheered, raising her hands in the air bouncing up and down.

"Tell you what," Victor said, kneeling to his daughter's level, letting go of the bags. "I'll use my magic powers to turn you into the biggest bounciest ball in the world." Trinity's eyes lit up with joy as he went on. "And you will bounce across the world taking over, ruling everything in your bouncy path!" Victor boomed in a heroic voice picking up the small girl and lifting her above his head.

"No fair, I want to be a bouncy ball too," Nathan cried from the floor. Victor set Trinity down and lifted Nathan. "Of course, son, we can all be bouncy balls together."

"How about we bouncy balls, bounce our way into the car. I told mom we left thirty minutes ago, and we have a two-hour drive ahead of us," Ella insisted, opening the door.

A cold gust of wind zipped through the door, causing both kids to shiver. Victor put Nathan back down on the ground and grabbed the bags. Ella grabbed the still trembling children's hands.

"Come on. The car is all warmed up."

After forty-five minutes of Disney songs, Victor turned off the radio. "Daddy, why'd ya turn off the music?" Trinity whined.

"Because sweetheart, if daddy hears another Disney song, he's going to crash the car straight in Mickey Mouse's a..."

"Victor," Ella growled, putting down her book to glare at him.

"How about we tell some stories and give my brain a break. Nathan, you wanna go first, buddy?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay, what's your story about?"

"When Trin and I were playin' knights and warriors in the backyard, and we found this big ogre."

"Whoa! Did you defeat it?" Victor laughed, matching the excitement of his son.

"Yeah! Trin almost got hurt, but the purple lady saved her."

"Is the purple lady another knight or warrior in your group?"

"I don't know who she is. She just showed up." Ella lowered the book she reading making a confused face at Victor. He didn't seem to be too worried about it. Ella turned, looking at Trinity.

"Do you know who the purple lady is?" She asked the small girl looked up from playing with her zipper.

"Nooope."

"Is she..." Ella paused for a second. Asking whether an imaginary person was real or not seemed silly. Of Course, a four-year-old that believes the pepperoni on pizza is flying saucers would think that a purple lady was real. "Is she, um a neighbor or something?"

"Mom, Mr. and Mrs. Nichols are too old to jump over the fence, besides the purple lady glows like a light bulb."

Victor let out a laugh, "You got bested by a seven-year."

Ella smacked him in the thigh with her book glaring at him. "Ow! I'm driving woman don't do stuff like that!" He tried to hit her back with one arm to no avail.

"She's like a fairy with no wings," Trinity chimed in joyfully.

"So, is she a fairy?"

"No, daddy fairies have wings."

"Well, excuse me," Victor chuckled.

"She comes in our room sometimes at night, too, but she doesn't do anything," Nathan added.

"What does she do?" Ella asked.

"She stares at Trinity. Sometimes she tries to touch her, but she doesn't. I tried to ask her what her name is, but she ignores me."

Both parents went silent for a second. "Well, that ah...that's disturbing," Victor mumbled slowly.

"How many times does she do this?"

"She does it a lot, Trin is usually sleeping, and I guess she thinks I'm sleeping too."

"And she doesn't say anything to you at all?" Victor questioned slowly but with more concern in his voice. Before Nathan could speak, Trinity spoke up. "Oh! Oh! She sometimes will talk to me."

"And what does she say, sweetheart?"

"She says she wants me to follow her and holds her hand out like this." The small girl pushed her little hand out like she was trying to reach for something.

"And have you ever followed the purple woman?" Ella asked.

"No, cuz daddy says don't follow strangers."

"That's my girl!" Victor cheered proudly.

"Well, Nathan, if you ever see the purple woman again, I want you to yell for your daddy or me, all right?" Ella cautioned.

"Okay, mom, but why?"

"I just...I want to meet her."

Silence fell over the car other than the small sounds of Trinity playing with her toys. "So, who wants Disney music?" Victor chimed. Both the kids cheered in excitement, naming off the song they wanted to hear.

After another hour, both the kids fell asleep in the car. Ella was finally able to ask the question that had been nagging her brain.

"So, do you..." She couldn't find the words to ask. "What do you think about the whole purple lady thing?"

Victor scoffed, "You don't believe that this is real, right?"

Victor looked Ella thinking she was joking or something, but her expression was nothing but fear and worry. "Hey, hey, what's wrong." He took one hand off the wheel and placed it on her shoulder.

"I just," Ella let out a sigh. "My mother always said..."

"Oh lord, not your crazy mother. It's bad enough we have to spend the weekend with her."

"Victor, please."

Ella was well aware of Victor's feelings towards her mother, and he wasn't necessarily wrong. Ella's mother had gone a little crazy after her mother, Ella's grandmother, disappeared suddenly without a trace. She became obsessed with finding out what happened to her, almost dragging Ella into the mix. She would always say things to Ella, things that didn't make any sense. The person with two eyes is doomed to disappear. Beware of the color purple, different dimensions, or worlds existing. It was all just crazy talk. Ella never paid any attention to it until Trinity was born.

When her mother came to see the newborn, she screamed, almost throwing the small girl on the ground. Thankfully, Victor was there to take the child before any damage was done. Ever since then, Victor did not trust her. Despite these issues, Ella and her mother still have a pretty good relationship. She promised her mother that she would visit twice a month with the kids to stay in touch. However, now her words are starting to make sense, and it was terrifying her.

"Ella?" Victor broke her out of her train of thought. He was going back and forth between her and the road concern riddled his face.

He let out a sigh, "Listen. I'm sorry I called your mother crazy again. She weirds me out with all the shit that keeps spilling out of her mouth. Then she always acts so strangely around Trinity. It just freaks me out." He glanced back at Ella again. "El, come on, talk to me."

Ella sighed "I'm just scared okay, some of the things that she said," Ella looked down at her hands they were shaking slightly. "I feel like the things she said, the things she would say to me. They seem to be applying to Trinity in some way or another, and it's terrifying me, Victor."

She looked up from her hands and over to Victor, "I cannot stand even the thought of something happening to our daughter."

"And nothing will happen to her all right." Victor's voice became grave. His hands gripping the wheel so tight it squealed like a pig.

"I will not allow anything to happen this family, okay." He glanced over at Ella. Her face was still stricken with worry.

"Okay?" He placed a hand on her knee, causing her to look at him. She slowly nodded her head, "Okay."

Another thirty minutes of silent driving, they finally arrived at a large white house. "You know I always forget how rich your mother is until we get to her house," Victor grumbled as they pulled up to the large gate. The house sat on a fifteen-acre plot of land complete with a massive security gate, a garden with a full-sized green sized greenhouse, and a giant pool. Victor rolled down the window and pressed the gate button. A loud buzz rang through the air as the massive gates opened into the property. The family drove to the garage parking area, unloaded both bags and kids out of the car.

"Mom, can Trin and I go play in the garden?" Nathan asked.

"Sweetheart, it's freezing out here. You guys will catch a cold. How about you guys play in the guest bedroom. You remember where it is?"

"Mmhm, I remember!" Nathan turned to his sister and grabbed her hand. "Come on, Trin, let's play knights and warriors again, bet we can find a dragon this time."

"Yay," Trin giggled, and the two of them ran inside, passing an elderly woman walking toward the car. She let out a small laugh as she walked out to meet the busy parents. "I see the kids are just as wild as ever." She joked with a kind grin on her face.

Both parents looked up from the car, Vic hitting his head on the trunk door, causing him to hiss in pain rubbing his head.

"Mom! How are you?" Ella walked up, hugging her mother.

"Well, my hair is gray, I have more wrinkles than a shar-pei," she hugging back, "but I'm fine."

Ella backed up, looking at her mother. Her red hair had gone gray and wiry; wrinkles littered her face and hands. She was wearing slippers, brown slacks and a light blue sweater with yellow flowers scattered all over it. "You look, fine mom."

"Yes, well, you're my daughter, you're supposed to say nice things. Come inside. It's freezing out here." She wrapped her arm around Ella's shoulder, leading her inside.

Victor watched as they walked inside with a glare, "Hey Margret. How are you? I'm fine, thanks. No, no, I'll get the bags. It's fine." Vic slung the bags over his shoulder, stalking inside after the two of them.

Ella followed her mother down the entrance hall into the large den. She sat in one of the four large chairs surrounding a large fireplace. Framed pictures and wall decorations made the house feel very homie. Margret sat in the chair next to her daughter.

"So, let's catch up. How is everything?"

"Everything's fine. Work is fine for both of us. Nathans loves second grade, but he's a bit shy, however. Making friends is a bit hard for him. Trinity, on the other hand, has no problems in pre-k. Her teacher says she's got a very vivid imagination."

Margret smiled, "Well, I'm glad Nathan is getting along well."

Ella sighed, "Mother, you can't just..." She stopped when she saw Victor stroll in with the bags on his back.

"Oh, Vic, I'm sorry. Do you need any help with those?"

"Nah, I'll carry them up to the room," he grumbled, walking away.

Margret continued as he went, "Well, I'm sure Nathan be fine. He's a very bright boy."

"Mother, you're ignoring Trinity again. I thought you weren't going to do this anymore?"

Margret spoke up again, her voice not as cheerful "That girl. Has she seen it?"

"Seen what, mother?"

Margret slammed a clenched fist on the arm of the chair. "You know what I mean, Ella. That...that thing. That purple glowing monster."

"Mom, you know that stuff isn't real. Please, can we not talk about this again?"

Margret stood up enraged. "It is real, Ella! Your grandmother didn't just disappear; that thing took her! That girl knows where she is!"

Ella then stood up, facing her. "She is a four-year-old girl. She doesn't know anything! She doesn't even know what her grandmother looks like!"

"No! She knows where she..."

"Is everything all right in here?" Victor walked in, looking back and forth between both of them. Ella let out a frustrated huff.

"Vic, I think we left something in the car, will you help me get it?"

Victor stared at his fuming wife, "Ye-yeah, yeah." Ella stomped past her mother and walked back to the car with Victor right behind her. Once outside, Ella let out a frustrated yell running her fingers through her hair. "She had another freak out again." Ella fumed, leaning against the car.

"Yeah, I heard. Usually, it takes a few hours before the first yelling match."

"Maybe we shouldn't bring the kids anymore, well, at least not Trinity. Maybe she'll settle down if she doesn't see or hear about her anymore."

Victor leaned against the car next to her, "Maybe if we leave them with a sitter for the weekend. You and I can come up here from now on."

"You wouldn't want to stay at home with them? I know you hate coming."

"No offense, but I would not feel comfortable leaving you alone with her for three days. I know she's your mother, but I can see her getting caught in her delusions and attacking you or something."

"She wouldn't do that. She's never hurt, anybody."

Suddenly small running footsteps were heard on the other side of the door only to stop and fiddle with the doorknob. Victor walked over to the door opening it to find a disheveled Nathan panting at the door. Victor knelt to his level, "Whoa, buddy, calm down. What's wrong?"

Nathan looked at his father, panting. "We, we were playing and...and Trin fell, and the purple lady came. Now she won't wake up! Grandma went to go check on her, but you said to come and get you if we see the purple lady, so I ran around and around and, and..."

Small tears began to form at the corners for the small boys' eyes. Victor gently grabbed both of his sons' arms and gave a little shake

"Hey, hey, hey, calm down, okay, buddy. Now, I want you to stay here with your mom while I go check on Trinity okay?"

"Okay." The small boy sniffed, trudging over to his mother, hugging her waist.

Victor turned to Ella as he ran out the door, "Stay here, and keep your phone on you!"

Rewind

"Come on, Trin, let's play knights and warriors again, bet we can find a dragon this time."

"Yay," Trin giggled. The two of them ran inside, passing an older woman walking toward the car. The two children ran down the hallway, up the stairs, and to the bedrooms. Trinity immediately ran to the bed, jumping up and down on it while Nathan inspected the room.

"Okay! So, the bed on the left is Mt Doom, that's where the dragon lives. You have to cross the wood bridge, that's the tall dresser in the middle of the beds. The bed you jumping on is the village, and they want us to defeat the dragon."

Trinity stopped jumping on the bed and scooted on the floor. "Can the rugs be lava?"

"You wanna play on hard mode?" 

"Yes, and, and the Tv is a portal to another world filled with the ogre peoples that eat cotton candy, but only the blue kind cuz the pink kind is poison."

"Trin, I don't think we'll need the ogres this time."

"No, no, we need them cuz ogre spit makes dragon poison."

"Well, how are we gonna get it?"

"Ogres like to spit a lot, so we just need a bowl."

Trinity looked around the room and saw a big glass bowl filled with decorative rocks on top of the tall dresser in-between the beds. She climbed the mattress, crawling toward the furniture. Even standing up on the bed, the chest of drawers was too tall for her to reach. Reaching up, she bounced on the mattress until she caught the front edge of the dresser, causing it to creak and buckle a little bit.

"Don't break it, you'll get in trouble." Nathan gulped, backing up a little.

"I won't," she responded as she swung her foot up to catch onto the horizontal handle of the dresser. The dresser groaned under the weight of the four-year-old as she hoisted herself on top, reaching the bowl.

"I got it," she chirped, grabbing the bowl with both hands!

"Drop it down, and I'll catch it."

Trinity leaned forward to drop the bowl down, but putting all of her weight toward the front of the dresser caused the front legs to snap, sending the dish, the girl, and the chest hurdling to the ground. In a matter of seconds, Nathan ran. The bowl fell first, shattering, sending glass and rocks all over the floor. Then came the girl along with a bright flash of purple light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, part two of the flashback is done. Once again, I apologize for the lack of Avatar stuff in these chapters, but you're almost there. Thank you so much for reading!


	3. The Incident

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, How's it going, and welcome back!

Nathan saw the dresser falling in slow motion. He went with his first instinct, diving out of the way with a bright purple light burned behind him. The sound of the wood dresser exploding against the walls and floor hurt his ears. Sharp glass and rocks flew in every which way, some hitting Nathan in the back. He turned slowly to see what had happened to his sister. The dresser was in pieces, splintered wood scattered across the room. Rocks and glass were not as wildly scattered, only tossed away. In the middle of all the destruction was his sister laying still. Nathan ran to her and began to shake her, "Trin? Hey, Trin. Wake up."

He dragged the smaller girl into his lap. "Come on, Trinity, wake up." Nathan tried to pick her up, but she was too heavy for him. "Okay, okay I'll um…I'll get mom and dad, they can wake you up."

Nathan hurried to the door, almost tripping as he went through. He ran down the stairs into the den, where he spotted his grandmother. She was staring into the fireplace, muttering to herself. He approached her slowly, "Um, Grandma? The dresser fell a-and, I think it fell on Trinity. She won't wake up, and the purple lady..." Her eyes shot open at those words.

"Purple lady? Where? Where did you see her?"

"I-in the bedroom, we were playing and..."

"I will check on the girl."

With that, she left, heading up the stairs to the spare bedroom. Nathan had half a mind to follow her, but something told him to find his parents. He ran around the house, searching for any sign of his parents. After three full minutes, he finally found them near the car. His father knelt to his level after opening the door.

"Whoa buddy, calm down. What's wrong?"

Nathan looked at his father, panting. "We, we were playing and...and, Trin fell, and the purple lady came. Now she won't wake up! Grandma went to go check on her, but you said to come and get you if we see the purple lady, so I ran around and around and, and..."

Small tears began to form at the corners for the small boys' eyes. Victor gently grabbed both of his sons' arms and gave a little shake, "Hey, hey, hey. You did good, okay, buddy. Now I want you to stay here with your mom while I go check on Trinity, okay?"

"Okay."

The small boy sniffed, trudging over to his mother, hugging her waist. "Hey, hey, sweetheart, look at me." Ella looked down at her son. His eyes were red and puffy. "You did really, really good, okay. When something goes wrong, you always get mom or dad."

"Is she gonna be okay mom? She...she wouldn't wake up."

"Don't worry. Your father is taking care of her."

Ella, on the inside, was losing her wits. Her daughter was somewhere in the house, non-responsive, and she had to stay down here. However, Ella had to remain calm. If she freaked, then Nathan would do the same. Just breathe and then...the sound of a phone ringing interrupted her thoughts. She picked it up "Hel-"

"Ella, keep Nathan down there and don't move until the police get here!" The panic she tried to store away hit her like a freight train. "Victor, what the hell happened? Is she okay?"

"Your fucking mother happened, that's what! She was...Hey, you stay the fuck over there, all right! Don't move."

There were some shuffling and her mother's voice in the background, along with a loud 'bam' sound. "Damn it, listen …stay down there. She's breathing and has a pulse okay. She...she should be fine." He hung up after that, leaving Ella scared and confused.

The girl became scared when the dresser broke. She fell fast, expecting to feel sharp glass or hard rocks, but instead, she saw a face. The purple lady's face, her arms reaching out to Trinity. As soon as they touched, everything went black. Instead of sharp pain, she felt cold dirt and warm sun bleeding through trees. She blinked her eyes open. They were blurry at first, only showing greens and browns. As her vision cleared, Trinity realized that she was no longer in the spare bedroom in her grandmother's house, but in a forest. She was surrounded by dense woods and the smell of damp leaves with musky, moldy dirt. Trinity sat up from her laying position, "H-hello?"

She fully stood, looking around more frantically. Fear began to take over her. "Nathan? Mommy? Daddy?"

The small girl began to wander through the forest, looking for anything familiar. The sounds of strange animals and insects filled her ears as she walked on. Trinity continued to wander and call out for any response until she happened upon a building. It was a large, old building made from crumbling stone with moss growing within the cracks. Stairs led up to a plateau that had an entrance doorway in the center. She slowly walked up to the building climbed up the rough stone until she came upon the opening to the building.

"Mommy? Daddy? Is anyone there?"

Her voice echoed into the darkness, but she didn't dare venture in the doorway. It was too dark, too scary. Tears began to form at the corners of her eyes. She didn't wander off, did she? She couldn't remember leaving the house, just the fall. Her parents always said if she was ever lost to call a number, but what was that number? Where would a phone be? Trinity took a seat at the top of the stairs. Maybe someone would come to the building; maybe her parents would find her here.

"Well, hello there, child."

Trinity quickly turned around to the stranger's voice to find an older woman. She stood immediately, preparing to run.

"There is no need for fright. I will not harm you."

The small girl relaxed slightly. The woman before her wore a dark purple cloak that covered all but her head. Silver hair fell upon her wrinkled face, which had an eye patch covering her left eye. She held a large stick she was using as a walking cane, which also looked quite old.

"Can... can you help me find my parents? I don't know where I am?"

The woman let out a small laugh, walked to the top step, sitting down. "Come, sit. As I said, I will not hurt you." Trinity hesitated at first then slowly sat on the top step a reasonable distance away from the woman. "So, my dear, where did you come from?"

"I was at my grandma's house, and Nathan and I were playing a game. I tried to get the bowl, but I fell, then I woke up here." She hiccupped through her explanation as tears started to fall from the small girls' eyes.

"Now, now, crying will get you nowhere. It seems like you're lost, in more ways than one."

"So, you don't know where my parents are?"

"They are elsewhere, in a different land, in a different time. They will not find you here, and you will not find them." Trinity's eyes began to fill with tears again.

"What did I say about tears, girl?" The older woman pointed her cane stick at Trinity.

"They um, they don't get me anywhere," she replied slowly.

"That's right. You'll do right to remember that."

Trinity wiped her tears away with her sleeve. "So, um, what do I do? I have to find them. Daddy said to never wander off without them. I'll get in trouble."

"You will not be here long. You are not old enough, not experienced enough. She will take you back soon." Trinity didn't exactly know what that meant, who was going to take her back. "Um, who is taking me back cuz Daddy says don't go anywhere with strangers."

"You needn't worry about that. You will be safe." The old woman shakily stood up, "Come. I will get you some food and drink."

"But you're a stranger too, and Daddy says…"

"What is your name?" The woman interrupted.

"Trinity, but sometimes my big brother calls me Trin."

The old woman looked at the small girl, "You can call me Grey, Trinity. It is nice to meet you." She held out a bony, wrinkled hand. Trinity looked at her hand for a second, then timidly shook it. "Now, come, you must be hungry?"

"But…"

"You have given me your name, and I have given you mine. We have also talked for a little while. Am I still a stranger?"

Trinity began to fiddle with her fingers, looking down at her shoes. Was this woman still a stranger; she didn't know, and she was a little hungry. "Um, do you have any ice cream?"

"I do not." They both made their way slowly down the stone steps

"Do you have any strawberries?"

"No, I do not. I do believe I have some fruit."

"Yay! I like fruit. I like apples and oranges and strawberries and kiwis and..."

"Yes, yes, I understand now; you like fruit."

"Fruits are colorful, too, and you wanna know why?"

"Why is that child?"

"It's because leprechauns make them grow out of the ground. They control the rainbows too and…" The small girl babbled on and on about fruit and leprechauns as they trekked down the stairs.

"Vic, I think we left something in the car, will you help me get it?"

Victor looked at his fuming wife, "Ye-yeah, yeah."

Ella stomped past her mother and walked back to the car with Victor right behind her. Margret watched as her naive daughter walked away from her. Why did she not understand? Why did she not care? It had to be that girl, that thing! Margret walked over to the fireplace, staring into the flame. Her mother had disappeared when she was young, and she saw it happen. That monster had led her away. It stole everyone away. While trying to find her mother, her friends abandoned her. Her husband left her, and that man stole Ella away right from under her nose. They all thought she was crazy; they were wrong. She had done research. She knew the truth. It may have lost her everyone, but she knew the truth.

"That girl knows where she is, she has to know," she began talking to herself. "I need to find out. I need to find out how to get there." Margret continued to mutter to herself, unaware of Nathan running up to her.

"Um, Grandma? The dresser fell and, and, I think it fell on Trinity. She won't wake up, and the purple lady..." Her eyes shot open at those words.

"Purple lady? Where? Where did you see her?"

"I-in the bedroom, we were playing and..."

"I will check on the girl."

She quickly pushed past the small boy making her way up the stairs. This was her chance; she could finally confront the purple lady. Finally, find her mother. The older woman walked through the doorway to see the room in shambles and the little girl lying on the floor. The mess was defiantly her work; she could feel it. Margret slowly approached the girl, "I've finally caught you."

She knelt next to the small girl, "Now, tell me where she is."

The girl didn't respond.

"Don't act like I'm not here!"

The girl did not respond.

"Don't act like you don't know who I am!"

The woman began to shake the unconscious girl, getting more violent with each shake. "Where is she?" Margret screamed at the top of her lungs, but the girl still did not respond. "Fine."

She slowly wrapped her bony fingers around Trinity's small neck. "I'll make you tell me. You won't let me kill her, will you?" Squeezing as tight as she could, she knew the monster would not let her die.

For a moment, there was no reaction, no response until the girl began to twitch and change color. Her skin changed from healthy tan to a sickly blueish purple. "Don't make me kill her, monster! Come out!" Margret screamed once again.

At the bottom of the stone building, Trinity and the old woman sat beside a small fire. The little girl was humming as she ate another fruit that the woman had given her.

"I like these fruits. What are they again?"

"That's the fifth time you've asked, girl," Grey growled.

Trinity stared blankly for a second, "I like them, they're sweet."

"Spirits, help me," she sighed, rubbing her head. The girl had not stopped talking about fruit since she mentioned them. "It's a moon peach."

"Moon peach? Do they grow on the moon?" Trinity asked, taking another bite.

"They do not."

"Then why is it called a moon peach?"

"It is said that they grow from the moon."

"Wait, but you just said..."

"From the moon, not on it."

Trinity looked at the woman with one eyebrow razed "...Huh?"

"I will do no more explaining and slow down. You'll choke."

Trinity did what the woman said, chewing slower then swallowing. She was about to take another bite when suddenly it became harder to breathe. At first, it was like breathing through a small tube, then after a few gulps of air Trinity couldn't take in any more air. She began to cough and gasp, grabbing at her throat.

"Now, I told you not to eat those so fast, or you'd choke." The old woman made her way over to the girl patting her back. When Trinity fell forward, still gulping for air, Grey began to panic. She turned the girl on her back, feeling her throat to see if a piece lodged itself in place, but there was nothing stuck. Her throat constricted like someone was pressing down on it. As the girl started to turn blue, her eyes rolled in the back of her head as the gasps began to get softer and less frequent. The woman put her hands together and prayed. Only the mighty spirits could save the girl now.

A bright purple light began to emit from the small girl growing bigger and bigger, forming into the shape of a woman. "Yes! Yes! That's it! There you are!" Margret yelled, keeping her grip on the young girl's throat.

"What the hell is going on in here!" Victor's arrival made the purple light vanish along with the woman shape that formed.

"No, no! I was so close. Come back! Come Back!"

Margret began to violently shake the girl again until Victor charged in and threw her off. She smacked her head against the floor, putting her in a daze. He pulled his little girl in his lap, placing his ear by her mouth to see if she was breathing. When he heard and felt nothing, he laid her back on the floor, trying CPR. "Trinity, come on, baby, you have to breathe for me," he panted. He breathed into her mouth, trying to get as much air as possible into her small lungs. After the second try, the girl finally took a deep breath and began to move slightly but still would not open her eyes.

"Okay, okay, we're breathing," Victor let out a sigh of relief. "We're breathing, now um...shit." Victor dug out his phone out of his back pocket and dialed 911.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"Yes, I need an ambulance. My daughter was choked and wasn't breathing at least one to two minutes."

"Is she breathing now, sir?"

"Yes, yes, I got her breathing again, but she's unconscious and hasn't woken up."

"All right, sir, if you give your location, I'll send someone right away."

Victor talked to the operator. Margret began to stir from her daze. When Victor hung up the phone with the police, he called Ella next. "Ella, keep Nathan down there and don't move until the police get here."

"Victor, what the hell happened? Is she okay?"

"Your fucking mother happened, that's what! She was," Margret began to try and get up, "Hey, you stay the fuck over there all right! Don't move."

She stood up fully, wobbling back and forth, "No, she was there. What did you do?" Margret tried to walk forward only to trip on a piece of wood and fall over.

"Damn it, listen …stay down there, she's breathing and has a pulse okay. She...she should be fine."

Victor didn't want Ella to see, not only her daughter like this but her mother as well. He would rather have her worried down there than panicked up here. Scooping up his little girl, he gently placed her on one of the beds then looked around the room.

"What the hell happened in here?" He slowly walked over to Margret, still on the floor. "Margret?" There was barely a response with a small movement. "Margret, I'm going to lift you onto the bed, okay?" Once again, she barely answered.

Victor leaned down, picking the elderly lady up and sitting her on the bed opposite of Trinity. She was extraordinarily dazed and confused, muttering to herself incoherent words. "Crazy old bat,"

Victor said, walking back over to Trinity and sitting next to her.

Grey held her hands together in prayer above the motionless girl. An entire minute passed until the child took a deep breath of air, her color returning. The old woman stopped her praying and looked down at the girl, "Oh, thank the spirits you're all right." Trinity's eyes began to flutter open as she started to stir awake. "Are you all right, child?"

"I don't want any more peaches from the moon," she rasped out.

"No more peaches." Grey grabbed a skin pouch of water next to her. "Here, drink."

Trinity took the sack and took a small gulp, "Can... can I go home now?"

"In due time, she is making preparations."

"What's a pep-or-ations?"

"It's nothing, child, rest now." Trinity began to close her eyes as a purple light began to surround her body. Slowly, she began to fade from existence. "Be more careful with her this time. We will need her unharmed later." Grey mumbled when the purple light was at its brightest. Not long after she said, this Trinity was gone.

After about five minutes, police and EMTs filled the house. They strapped Trinity to a gurney, wheeling her out with an oxygen mask strapped to her face. Margret was placed under arrest and sat in the back of one of the police cars.

"Listen, I'll ride in the back with Trinity just in case they have any more questions. You can follow behind with Nathan all right?"

Ella was almost in tears once she saw her daughter coming down the stairs with a mask on her face. She wanted to be with her, hold her, make sure she was all right. "Are you sure we all can't just..."

"Ella, you know we can't all fit in there, and if they need to know something I can answer right away." Victor wrapped his arms around her and squeezed, "You'll be right behind us. She's in good hands, all right."

Ella just nodded as Vic let go. He looked down at his son, clutching on to her shirt like it would leave if he let go. "Hey buddy, I'm gonna need you to be strong for your mom and your sister, okay?" Nathan sniffled, rubbing his red eyes, "Okay," he choked in a small voice.

Victor turned for the ambulance while Ella led Nathan to the car. The car was silent as the two drive to the hospital other than a few sniffles from Nathan. When they arrived, Victor was already in the waiting room, sitting with his elbows resting on his knees. He looked up when he heard the sliding doors open and waved them over. Ella and Nathan walked over, sitting next to him, "How is she?"

Victor sighed, "She started to wake up on the way over but couldn't answer any of their questions."

"Questions?"

"You know, ' What're your name' 'How many fingers am I holding up' those kinds of things."

"Oh, okay."

"We should be able to go back there soon. The doctors want to check all of her vitals and everything. Depending on how that goes, she might have to stay overnight for oxygen and monitoring."

Ella took in a deep, controlled breath then let it out slowly, trying to release all the anxiety and fear.

"Is she going to be okay, Dad?"

Victor looked at his son and smiled, "Yeah, she's going to be fine. The doctors are just giving her a checkup."

"Victor, you said my mother was doing something to her when you got up there. What was she doing?"

He frowned then looked down at Nathan then back to Ella. "Maybe we should talk about that later…alone." She nodded, leaning back in her seat. What could her mother possibly have done? The double doors in front of them opened; all three looked up.

"Hale." The nurse called out, and the family stood walking over to the nurse. "Right this way, please."

They followed the nurse, past rooms filled with the sick and broken until they found the place with Trinity inside with a grin on her face. A female doctor was sitting on a stool in front of her, doing a spinning pen trick. As soon as the little girl saw her family, her eyes widened, slapping an even bigger smile on her face.

"Daddy! Mommy!" Her voice was raspy and rough.

"Now remember what I told you, Trinity. Try not to talk too much, okay," the doctor said, giving Trinity her pen and a notepad to draw on?

She stood up, walking over to the family, "I'm Doctor Webb; it's nice to meet you."

Victor stuck out his hand for her to shake, "I'm Victor, and this is Ella, my wife and my son Nathan. So, how's she doing?"

Webb shook his hand, "She's doing great, an absolute joy to work with. If I could, I would like to speak to you both outside the room for a minute."

"Yes, of course," Ella said, looking down at Nathan. "How about you check if your sis is doing all right." Nathan nodded, walking over to Trinity, drawing pictures.

Both parents and the doctor stepped right outside the doorway so they could still see the kids.

"All right, so we would like to keep Trinity here overnight to monitor her breathing. Choked victims can suffer from…"

"Wait, she was choked?!" Ella interjected.

"That's what my report says, yes."

Ella covered her mouth with her hands in shock, "Oh my God, I can't believe that she choked her."

"Hey, let's let her finish, okay? We'll talk about that later," Victor said, rubbing her back.

Dr. Webb continued, "Well, when victims are choked, they can have many symptoms, including difficulty breathing, severe coughing, and difficulty swallowing. With her being so young, there could also be some brain damage. If she starts having any seizures, changes in behavior, blackouts, we would like to run an MRI. Check things out from there. Right now, as I said before, she's doing fine. She'll need to rest her throat for at least two weeks, which means she shouldn't talk too much."

"Well, that's difficult thing number one, girl loves to talk," Victor chuckled.

Dr. Webb laughed, "Yes, I noticed. She's delightful."

"Is there anything she'll have to take, medication wise?" Ella asked.

"She might have a sore throat for a little while. We can prescribe pain medication and something to soothe her throat if she needs it, but most children like the alternative route."

"What's the alternative?" Victor asked.

"Sugar-free vanilla ice cream works wonders," Dr. Webb chucked out.

"All right, so as long we don't see anything of those signs, she should be good, right?" Victor asked.

"Well, there is one other thing."

"What is it?"

"Well, you said that she had fallen from a dresser, and that's what knocked her out, correct? Not the strangulation?"

"Yeah, well, I didn't see it happen, but that's what Nathan told me. He freaked when she fell and went to find one of us. Unfortunately, he found Martha instead," Victor answered back.

"Well, the curious thing is that there are no signs that she fell. There're no bumps or bruises other than on her neck. Children as young as she is would have had a pretty bad bump from a fall that knocks them out."

"So, what does that mean?" Ella asked.

"If she did fall, it couldn't have been hard enough for her to be unconscious without some bump or knot on her head. Usually, when we have patients that come in from being unconscious, they are very confused. They can even have some memory loss for quite a while; she has none of that. I believe that it means that something else knocked her out."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the last of the big flashback thing, hope you enjoyed it. This chapter probably had the most jumping back and forth that will ever be in this story. Still got one more chapter before we make it to the Avatar world, but thanks for sticking with me. Thanks for reading!


	4. The Chase

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, how's it going. Welcome back!

"So, they've been getting worse."

A seventeen-year-old Trinity stopped spinning in the black rolling stool in the small doctor's office, looking up with her multi-colored eyes. Her long curly dark red hair fell over the school uniform she wore; a white collared shirt and navy-blue skirt. The old doctor sitting across from her tapped his pen on a clipboard filled with papers that mapped out her medical history. A copious amount of blackouts and hallucinations slapped Schizophrenia on every page. After all the doctor's appointments and brain scans, she was prescribed various medications that didn't help. Despite having to take a trip to see an old man in a white coat every few weeks, she didn't mind going. Everyone was friendly, for the most part. Each visit guaranteed a half-day out of school, a lollipop, and a spin in a rolling stool.

"Yeah, ever since my birthday last week. It's mostly at night, right before I go to bed. I usually don't remember falling asleep or even lying down."

"Is she still there every time as usual?"

"Oh, I'm sure. Even if I don't see the woman, I know she's there. Always watching, wanting me to follow her. I never do, though. She usually touches me. Never the other way around."

"Are you taking your medication? Be truthful this time."

Trinity gave him a broad smile, "Of course I have. Can't imagine how bad it'd be without it," she stated with a bit more sarcasm than intended.

Her doctor grumbled, jotting some notes down while she chuckled to herself. She hadn't been taking any medication for years; it just made her sleepy. After the third and final little rebellion when she was thirteen, she was forced to take it in front of her parents. That worked for about a week until she became an expert at spitting them back up. Her doctor knew that she was stubborn about taking the copious amounts of drugs he wanted her on. It seemed like he didn't care about whether she took them or not as long as she was under control. Unfortunately, that was about to change.

"The dreams? Are they still the same?"

"Yup. In the middle of the forest, a big stone temple thing, no one around, just me."

The doctor wrote a few more notes down, then pointed at the door. "Alright, go get your mother. I'll talk to her."

"Aye Aye captain." After the first couple of times of lying about the meds, the doctor felt like if her parents weren't in the room, she'd tell the truth. It worked for about a month until she realized there was no consequence either way. Trinity rolled to the door to let her mother in the room. Ella walked in soon after, "So, how are things?" She looked back and forth between Trinity and the doctor hoping for good news.

"We're going to increase the dose again; 800 milligrams of Seroquel a day."

Ella's face fell, disappointed. "Are you sure that will work? This is the third time we've increased her dose."

"These things happen, Mrs. Hale, especially in teenagers. Not only are they still growing, but their brains go through a lot of chemical changes. These increases will probably stop in a couple of years when she's older."

Trinity mimicked his mouth movement with a bored expression on her face. This was the same speech that was given every time the dose increased, not as it mattered to her. No matter how high the dosage got, she wouldn't take it. Ella sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, "And how high can we go with this until we can't increase any more?"

The doctor grumbled a bit before responding, "Well, we're at the highest dose we can use at the moment. As she grows, we can increase to higher doses. We will also check her blood work on a more regular base to make sure she is on the medication regularly."

Trinity's head shot up, almost falling out of the stool. Checking blood levels was not good for her 'avoid taking medication at all costs' plan. She was about to speak up about it, but her doctor beat her to it.

He stood up slowly, heading for the door, "Your mother and I know about your unwillingness to take your medication. With your condition getting worse, we must make sure you are taking them. The blood work will make sure of this. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have other patients I have to see."

Ella sighed, "Alright, well, I guess we should get going too. Thank you for your help again, doctor. Come on, Trinity."

Trinity hopped out of the stool, "See ya Doc.," she mumbled.

As they walked out of the hospital and into the car, Ella looked at her youngest child. Her poor daughter had been on medication since she was five. The girl had a hard time in school because the drugs made her sleepy. She had difficulty making friends because of the blackouts and randomly yelling at hallucinations. All Ella wanted was a normal life for her daughter, but it seemed like that was getting further and further away from the older she got. Now her doctor wanted to increase her dosage, which might not do anything. Maybe they should look for another doctor. Dr. Wess was great, but he seemed disinterested in Trinity's case. She could only imagine. Trinity's continued unresponsiveness to medication was frustrating, to say the least. Many of her other doctors had already passed the torch to someone else. On the ride back, Ella glanced at Trinity, scribbling away in her sketchbook. She seemed unperturbed by the increase in medication.

"So, what do you think about the dose increase?"

"I think I'm farthing my career in becoming a drug addict. Maybe I should start collecting and selling."

"I don't think that would be a very successful career," Ella laughed. No matter what was happening, Trinity always found a way to make it light-hearted. There was hardly a time when she saw her daughter depressed or upset about her situation. Ella was grateful for that.

"Ah, you're right. We both know I suck at math, not to mention cartels aren't much into anti-psychotics. At least I don't think so anyway." She stopped sketching, tapping the pencil on her bottom lip for a moment. "Maybe I should research that? It would defiantly pay the bills."

"Speaking of, you can stay after school for math tutoring tonight. Nathan will pick you up."

"Aw man, I was hoping he wouldn't want to during his vacation," she grumbled, going back to sketching.

"He had his complaints," Ella chucked.

"I'm sure. You're working late at the hospital again?"

"Yes, they need some extra nurses on hand, and we could use the money."

Trinity's mood slightly sunk at the mention of money. They wouldn't need the money if she weren't so messed up. She didn't realize that she was causing such troubles until middle school when her father had to get two jobs. Trinity thought about getting a job herself to help, but her condition deterred her. She would never express those thoughts out loud. Her parents had enough to worry about. They didn't need to know about the times she wondered about what she was going to do with her life. How depressed and lost she felt when she couldn't find a solution. The car went silent other than the scratching of pencil on paper.

"Have you thought about a college to go to? I know you still have most of the school year left, but seven months can pass by quicker than you think. Before you know it, you'll be scrambling as your brother did," Ella chuckled out, trying to lighten the mood.  
Trinity stopped drawing but didn't look up from her book. A mixed look of thought and disappointment slowly formed on her face. It was almost like her mother knew what she was just thinking about.

"About that...I," she paused to gather her thoughts again, "I don't think I want to go. To collage, I mean."

Ella looked over to her daughter to make sure she wasn't joking around. The look on her face showed she was completely serious. Her mother thought about how to respond before answering. As a parent, she wanted to drill in the importance of furthering her education. On the other hand, as a mother, she knew coming at this with anything but comfort and support could worsen the situation.

"Why is that?" Her mother questioned. She decided to try and better understand the situation. The only way she could say it was a bad idea is if she could combat Trinity's reasoning.

"I just don't think I'd be able to do it."

"Trinity…"

"Mom, c'mon. I have frequent blackouts almost every other day. Even without the added hallucinations, no one would want me doing anything."

"Trinity, you can't just assume that. You never know with this new dosing you could..."

"Mom. It won't work, nothing ever works. I'm stuck like this. What's the point of even trying?"

Ella sighed, unfortunately, her daughter was right. No amount of medication has been helping her. Living a normal life was just about impossible for her now. It broke her heart, knowing that Trinity thought she was unfit to pursue a career. Silence befell the car as Ella pulled up to the red brick school. Before Trinity could get out of the car, her mother spoke up.

"Well, all I can say is that you have to try Trinity. I won't say that it will be easy, but giving up isn't the option either."

Trinity slowly started to put her book in her bag, still looking unsure. "I guess, but what would I even go for? I'm not that good at anything."

"Now we all know that's not true at all. Your drawings are amazing." The comment wasn't just her cheering her daughter up. Trinity had started drawing when she was six and hadn't stopped since. The continued practice naturally made her a fantastic artist.

"They're not that good." She had looked up professional concept artist and visual developers. There was no way she could compete with them.

"Well, you're very good at fixing things. How about a mechanic of some kind?" Ella remembered the time when Trinity fixed their washing machine by after watching a video once. The pipe was replaced and better than even within an hour.

"So, I can pass out in some heavy machinery. No, thanks. Besides, I'm better at breaking things, not fixing them." She couldn't remember a time when she had fixed something that hadn't broken soon after.

Ella paled at the thought. "Okay, well how about geography. It's your best subject."

"Way too boring. Besides, that's everybody's best subject. It's just reading maps."

"I feel like you're a bit unreasonable here." Ella sighed, rubbing her hand on her head.

Trinity stayed quiet.

"Listen, how about we talk about later. This weekend with your father. Maybe we can work something out."

"He's gonna be mad," Trinity groaned, looking at her mother.

"He won't be mad; I'll make sure of it. I'll see you later tonight, hun. Tell Nathan to pick up something for dinner when he gets you."

Trinity got out of the car but didn't respond. Towards the woods, she could see the woman again in her purple glow, holding her hand outward. Her mother's calling voice echoing in her head an uncertain amount of times caused her to snap out of her daze, shaking her head. "Alright, see ya later, mom," Trinity spoke a little dazed as she trotted away. Ella watched her daughter walk into the school building then leaned over to see what Trinity was staring at. She thought for a moment that there was a purple haze fading away, but, in a blink, it was gone.

The school was never Trinity's favorite thing in the world, which was no different than any other kid. High school, thankfully, was nowhere near as challenging as middle school was, but it still had its faults. She couldn't escape the few that liked to pick on the oddballs, and oddball was her middle name. If it wasn't her mental illness, her eye color made for another easy target. She was no longer bothered by it anymore. Their opinion didn't matter. Thankfully, because of the large student body, the occurrences were few and far between. As Trinity walked down the white hallways to her locker while her best friend walked up to her waving. She waved back as he trotted over to her.

"H-hey T. Wha-at's up?"

"How's it going, Allen?"

Allen had a speech disorder, causing him to stutter on almost all his words. Trinity met him three years ago when he was being picked on by two morons. She acted like she had a blackout right in front of them, which scared the pants off of the bullies. After some explaining, they formed an unbreakable friendship. Despite his speech disorder, Allen was a confident, energetic young man. He was tall and lean muscled, along with short brown hair, hazel eyes, and freckles that went from one cheek to the other. Unfortunately, Allen was blind as a bat and had to wear glasses. That being paired with his speech disorder caused people to pick on him. It didn't help that he was friends with Trinity, either. Her reputation caused him to sink all the way to freak show status. He didn't mind one bit though preferring to have one true friend than a bunch of fake ones.

"I-I'm okay. Though I h-have sp-p-peech class t-t-tomorrow morn-n-ning."

"How about we switch. I'll go to speech class, and you can go to the hospital for me. I feel like it's a fair trade."

Allen chuckled, "A-as t-t-tempting as th-h-at sounds, I d-don't think-k I'll take y-you up on t-that."

"But they have needles and smelly old people. Who would want to pass up on that?"

"M-me, I do."

Trinity laughed, "Mmm, whatever you say." She gathered what she needed for her classes out of her locker. They both walked down the hall, falling into their regular routine. Allen would skip out on the last five minutes of his class to meet her. Then they would stay by his locker until classes started back up again.

"S-So, uh, I g-got another-r request." Allen dug through his pocket and pulled out a small folded sheet of paper. Trinity took the note, unfolding it reading what was inside. 'Locker 582' in messy handwriting. Trinity grumbled as she shoved the paper in her pocket.

"I-I know-w it's a-a-a bit sh-hort not-tice but they w-wanted it d-done as-sap."

"Well, it won't happen until next week. I ran out of supplies a few days ago."

"I'll l-let them-m kn-now."

A loud bell rung out, followed by the rush of students leaving classroom doors. The duo stopped at Allen's locker as always blending into the mass bodies.

"We'll probably need to stop this soon, you know. Seven more months, and we're out of here." Trinity turned her back against the lockers, looking at all the students walking back and forth.

"You-u th-hink anybody will e-ever fi-igure out-t that it w-was us the whol-le time?" Allen mimicked her stance, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Nah, and I hope it stays that way. I kind of like being the Batman and Alfred of the school."

"A-alfred not Robin-n?"

"Alfred is way cooler than Robin."

Allen snorted, but before he could comment, the bell rang again, signaling that class was about to start. The noise made Trinity groan.

"Y-you know wha-at could ch-cheer you up? The dr-rama c-club needs help ag-gain settin-ng up after sc-school. We c-could do that-t. Then-n laugh at a-all the bad acting and play w-with all the p-props once they l-leave."

"Sorry, Al, I'm gonna be..." she trailed off, staring over his shoulder. The purple lady was standing down the hall, calling her again with her hand reaching out to her.

"Damn, she's persistent today," Trinity growled.

Allen gave a confused look then looked behind him to find nothing, but the few students still left in the halls. "I-is it the s-same one you alw-ways talk a-about," he said, turning back. "T-that pur-purple woman?"

"Yeah, she's been annoying lately!" she shouted into the hall.

"E-ever thought about-t going with h-her? Ma-aybe, she's g-got some k-kind of cool a-alien tech-technology."

"Or maybe she wants to turn my brain into soup."

"O-or you could-d be t-the next step in h-human evolu-lution and she's here t-to find out what-t makes you spe-special."

"Or she could rip out my eyeballs and sell them to her ghost friends."

"I'd b-buy your eyeballs."

"Would you give them back?"

"Mmm, t-that's a go-good question. I'll t-think on it-t."

Trinity chuckled only to be interrupted by a nearby teacher. "What are you two still doing at your lockers? The bell has rung, and you're going to be late," she scolded as she scurried down the hall!

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson." Both of them droned but didn't move from the lockers.

"Guess we should go to class, huh?" Trinity sighed.

"W-we could, or we could-d j-just st-stay here."

"She's going to come back."

"Just do the same thing we always do," he quipped back, nudging her shoulder.

Trinity sighed, "Someone is going to catch on to that," she grumbled. "By the way, to answer your question seriously, no, I've never gone with her. Even when I was little, it always seemed like if I went willingly, something would change."

"M-maybe a ch-change is what you need. May-maybe if we f-figure out w-what the p-purple lady wants, s-she'll go away."

"Or my eyeballs, remember. Open your locker." Allen turned to his locker without any protest opening it. Trinity grabbed a small screwdriver from her pocket using it to remove the pins from the two hinges of the locker door. With the pins gone, the door started to fall forward until she caught it with her hand before it could fall.

"Yes, yes, your e-eyeballs. I g-get it, but w-what if that r-really gets-s rid of her? N-no more tor-torment, a-a-a normal life. W-we could go to the s-same college."

"Al, we already talked about this." Allen knew about Trinity's fear of her future. Ever since she told him, he would try to come up with solutions to her problem. It was sweet, and she appreciated it, but nothing would work.

"H-how about I-I go with you? I may n-not be able t-t-to see her, but i-if it helps you out then-n I'll go," Allen responded.

"Aren't you terrified of ghosts?"

"N-n-no..."

"I feel like that stutter was more out of fear; also, your legs are shaking."

They both looked down at Allen's legs, quite visibly shaking. "F-fine I'll b-be scared b-but I'll g-go anyway; j-just for you."

"Well, you're braver than I am. I don't want to go anywhere near that woman. I really don't want to go on whatever adventure she would drag me into."

Just as Allen was about to speak again, Mrs. Jackson came back around the corner. "Are you two still here? Do I have to bring you to class myself?"

"Of course, not Mrs. J. My buddy Al here got his shirt stuck in his locker door right as you left. We had to fiddle with it a bit to get it open. Unfortunately," Trinity removed her hand from the door, causing it to fall to the floor. "We went a little overboard."

"My goodness!"

"M-my locker h-has a bad h-habit of doing this. J-just call the jan-janitor, L-lenard. He k-knows how t-to fix it," Allen informed as they both started to walk away.

"Y-you put the pins b-back in-inside my locker, r-right?" he whispered.

"What do you take me for, an amateur?"

Allen scoffed, "Y-you've for-forgotten before. So, I-I guess you c-can't make t-the drama club thing-g huh?"

"Oh yeah, sorry, gotta go get by brain melted after classes."

Allen laughed, "Math."

"Math."

"A-Alright well, I g-guess I'll s-see you later."

"Sure thing, bro."

They both walked away to designated classes. The rest day passed by like a blur. She never really paid much attention in school these days. When Trinity was younger, she wanted to prove that she could excel just like any other student, but as her condition worsened, she just gave up. What was the point? Life was already complicated enough without being knocked out for most of it. By three o'clock, she was sitting in her tutoring class, looking out the window with her mind in a daze. She didn't know what the teacher up front was talking about, nor did she care. A particular purple light started to flicker outside the window, snapping her out of her daze. She squinted, moving closer to get a better look. The purple woman formed out in the distance by the woods holding her hand out to her. She was saying something, but Trinity couldn't hear her. She got closer to the window, hoping that her voice would be more evident. Her name started to echo in her brain, getting louder and louder. Was she saying her name?

"Trinity Hale!"

Her teacher's voice slung her right back into reality as she looked up wide-eyed. When did she stand up? How long was the teacher calling her name?

"Trinity, do you know the answer to the question on the board?"  
She looked up at the board. There was an equation that looked like it was written in Mandarin.

"No, I don't know, but it's probably a number value of some kind," she joked.

"Haha, very funny. Please pay more attention."

Trinity nodded, sitting back down, looking forward instead of out the window. Her teacher, Mrs. Wolfe, was very much aware of her condition and tried to help her out as much as possible. In truth, Wolfe was one of Trinity's favorite teachers because she wanted to understand her more rather than just ignoring her problems. Trinity surmised it was because she was relatively new to teaching wanting all of her students to pass. Wolfe was also young. Being straight out of college, she was closer in age to her students than some of her co-workers. She effortlessly related to their troubles, finding solutions, though Trinity was a unique case.

"Probably talking to busy talking to ghosts again." One of the kids in the class whispered. Most of the others snickered while one student mimicked someone fainting.

"Guys, that's enough. I don't see any of you answering the question, either," Wolfe scolded. The teasing and bullying were nothing new to her. Ignoring it would be best for now. She once again tuned out the class looking out the window. Wolfe didn't bother her for the rest of the tutoring session. By the end of the lesson, the students made their way out of the class while Trinity dragged behind.

"Ms. Hale, come up here, please." Trinity sighed through her nose and sauntered toward the desk. "You got distracted again."

"It was because math is so enlightening that I had to focus on something else. My brain could melt out of my ears if not."

Her teacher rolled her eyes, "Yeah yeah, all jokes aside, you need your math credit to pass this year. You have to pay more attention."

"Yeah, I get it. It's been harder for me to focus lately," Trinity groaned, rubbing her eyes. With the purple lady's more frequent visits, she could barely keep up with any of her classes.

"So, they have been getting worse?"

Trinity nodded, "The Doc's going to increase my meds again, not that it will help."

Wolfe sighed, stood from her chair, and walking over to Trinity's side. "How about this, you and I can meet privately without the other students. Maybe the one on one will help you focus better."

"You don't have to do that. She doesn't bother me that much. I just need a kick in the shin every now and again."

"Well, as much as I would love to go around kicking my students in the shin, it's illegal, and I'll get arrested."

"I'd bail you out."

"With what money?"

Trinity thought for a moment scratching her chin. "Okay, so I might have to rob a bank first, but I'll get you out."

Wolfe laughed, "In all seriousness, I want you to pass. I know you're a smart girl. How about we meet again tomorrow after school. Go over the same stuff."

"Yeah, I can do that. I'll get my brother to drive me, I guess."

"Great."

Trinity began to walk out of the room, but her teacher spoke again. "Do you want me to do anything about the other students. I can send them all to the principle if you want."

"Nah, it would just come back to haunt me later."

"Fine, I'll just scold them as anyone else would," she droned back sarcastically.

"Please don't make it a big deal. I'm not bothered by it. I've been dealing with it for years. A few more months won't kill me."

"You shouldn't have to deal with it at all, but I won't do anything to crazy like destroy school property." Wolfe raised an eyebrow Trinity while just smirked.

"Now, why on earth would you do that?"

"Stop destroying the lockers, Trinity."

"But they're fixable," she tried to reason, backing out of the room.

"If I hear another locker door has fallen off, I'm turning you in," Wolfe warned, crossing her arms.

"Won't happen again," Trinity yelled out of the room, trotting away.

Trinity waited outside the school for her brother to pull up. Being by herself always worried her. It was when she was alone when things started to appear. Sitting on the front steps that led up to the school, she counted. Counted the bugs crawling on the ground, the number of stitches in her shoes. Even going as far as counting how many bumps formed on the concrete. Anything to keep from looking up. She was scared but not for reasons most people might think. Many people would be scared because a ghost or hallucination had been tormenting them for most of her life. Just the thought of an entity following anyone around for an extended period was terrifying, but that wasn't what she was scared of. No, Trinity got used to that feeling of being watched long ago. The blackouts she would get, she admits, those are scary too but not too bad. Once again, something that she got used to overtime. No, what terrified her most was how the purple woman drew her in like a fish on a hook. No matter how hard Trinity tried, no matter how hard she fought, she would always find herself following her. It's like she would go in a sort of trance. The fact that she would lose control of her body going where ever the purple lady was; that was scary, and it was getting worse.

Usually, she could snap out of it. Here recently, she'd find herself taking a step forward-leaning closer and closer until darkness hit or she ran into something. So, she looked down, and she counted. If she couldn't see and kept her brain focused, she wouldn't follow. The sound of a car pulling around stopped her counting as she looked up. Trinity watched as the vehicle drove past her to pick up another kid waiting, then watched as it drove away. Just before she was about to go back to counting, a light caught her eye. She knew what the light was and she shouldn't have looked, but she couldn't help it. Off in the distance, the brightly lit lady stood with her hand extended. Trinity stared back; her body felt numb. As she stared, the purple lady seemed to get closer and closer, calling her name. Trinity. Trinity. Trinity.

"Trinity!"

She snapped out of her daze and looked around. Nathan was there in front of her in the middle of the street.

"What the hell are you doing?"

She took a couple of quick breaths before focusing on Nathan's face. "Nothing, nothing…um, let's go."

Trinity made her way to the car without a second thought while Nathan stood there for a moment. He looked around before getting in himself. They drove away from the school in silence. Nathan kept his eyes on the road while Trinity looked out the window.

"Mom told me to pick up something for dinner. What do you want to get?"

"Not hungry," she muttered back.

He chuffed, "You say that now, but you'll go straight to the fridge when we get home."

"Not true."

"Completely true."

"You'd do the same thing."

"No, I'd go get something to eat before I got home as any normal person would."

"Well, we both know that I'm not all that normal."

"Well, if you cut down on the number of times you stand in the middle of the street, maybe you would be a little more normal."

"I didn't mean to follow…" she stopped before saying any more. She noticed Nathans' hands tighten around the wheel as an awkward silence fell over the car.

"So, the meds aren't working?"

"You know why they won't work."

"It's not real, Trin," he growled through his teeth.

"Pretty real when we were kids."

"Yeah, when we were kids. Not now."

"You don't understand," she sighed, turning away from him.

"What is there to understand? You have a mental illness, and we are trying to treat it."

"That's not what it is."

"How? Explain to me how this is anything but Schizophrenia."

"Because there's more just two symptoms to Schizophrenia Nathan! You should know this, going to medical school."

"You probably don't have a severe enough case," he muttered.

"Not a severe enough…!" Trinity stopped herself from yelling, clenching her jaw tight. He had no idea how hard it was for her. "Your right," she said after a minute. "I am hungry. Just stop by McDonald's or something."

"Whatever," he grumbled.

"By the way, you'll have to pick me up from school again tomorrow."

"What why?"

"I have a meeting with one of my teachers that I can't miss."

Nathan rolled his eyes, "Fine, whatever, just make sure your out on time."

The two siblings walked into the house, not saying a word to each other. The house hadn't changed much since they were kids though they no longer shared a room. The only sound coming from the home was coming from the television in the living room. "Dad, we're home," Nathan called out while Trinity took her bag of food straight to the living room.

Victor was sprawled out on the couch, snoring, with a random television show playing on the TV. Trinity smiled, walking over to him, setting the food on the coffee table. She knelt in front of him while Nathan stepped into the doorway.

"Don't wake him," he growled in a hushed tone. Trinity looked at Nathan with an eyebrow cocked. "Dad," she somewhat shouted, causing Victor to jump with a loud snort! Nathan rolled his eyes while she laughed.

"Oh, you kids home already? What time is it?" Victor yawned with a stretch, his bones cracking.

"It's almost five," Nathan spoke up. "I'm going back out for a few hours, I'll be back," he said, turning back to the front door to leave.

Once the door shut, Trinity stood and sat next to her father. "Got you some food." Victor immediately started digging through the bag, grabbing some fries.

"Your mother would kill me if she saw me eating these," he said with a mouth full of french fries.

"I'll make sure I tell her everything."

Victor chuckled, "I'm honestly surprised."

"Whys that?" Trinity dug through the bag, snacking on some of the fries herself.

"You two made it in a car for more than five minutes without killing each other."

Trinity snorted, "We came pretty close."

"Hmm, no use in trying to get you guys to get along, huh?"

"Nope, he's a diii- jerk." Trinity corrected herself.

Victor cocked an eyebrow then sighed, leaning back against the couch, "Yeah, he can be a dick sometimes."

Trinity cracked a smile. "You know he probably gets that from your mother's side of the family. Always so serious and worried and caring..."

"Dad..."

"and loving..."

"Dad stop,"

"and family..."

"Okay, okay."

"Listen, I'm just saying that even though your brother is an ass sometimes doesn't mean he doesn't love you. He just has a strange way of showing it." Victor nudged her shoulder, causing her to flop over on the couch.

"Yeah yeah, I know."

Both of them went quiet for a minute. "On another note," Victor interrupted the silence.

"What?"

"Your mom told me something a little interesting."

Trinity scrunched her face. What could she have told him?

"So, what's this about no college?"

"Dad, please," she groaned.

"Trinity just," he sighed, "what are you thinking." Unlike her mother, Victor was always adamant about school. He had one too many family members mess up their lives due to a lack of education. Victor was undoubtedly not going to let his children suffer the same fate. Though he understood why it was difficult for Trinity to pull off the grades her brother did, that didn't mean she couldn't pass at all.

"I just...I don't think I can."

"Can what? Learn?"

"It's already hard enough to focus on anything. College sounds stressful, maybe even impossible."

"Trinity just because things are difficult doesn't mean you give up."

Trinity sighed, "Can we talk about this, this weekend. Mom said we would."

"Trinity, I don't think..."

"Please," she pleaded.

Her father grumbled at the response, "Fine, but this weekend we're having a serious talk about this, okay?"

"Yeah, I got it." She got up from the couch and started to make her way down the hallway to her room.

"Trinity," her father called out to her.

"Yeah."

"Just because you have a disability does not mean any less smart or capable than any other girl. I want you to remember that."  
Trinity only nodded, walking to her room. She shut the door behind her as she walked in. Though the place had been her own for about three years, she hadn't bothered to make Nathan's side her own. Her half-covered in posters, drawings, and furniture. His portion was barren, with only an old dresser and desk he didn't want. Trinity flopped over on her bed, staring at her ceiling. She thought about what her father had said to her. Her disability didn't mean she couldn't do what she wanted. It was hard to believe that. Her condition already hindered her to the point of almost failing high school and having only one friend. It put a strain on her own family. Because of all her medications and doctor visits, her parents took in all the hours they could get at work. There wasn't a time when she didn't see them exhausted. It was all her fault. Her brother didn't want to be around her anymore. He not only didn't believe her about the purple lady anymore; he almost seemed to have a complete aversion to the problem in general. This was not only frustrating for Trinity but also a little heartbreaking. She didn't even know if her brother loved her anymore. Despite all of this, she didn't cry about it. Crying would get her nowhere. She closed her eyes and began to count.  
"One, two, three, four..."

As she counted, she could see the light begin to appear and brighten from the inside of her eyelids. She was here.

"Five, six, seven..."

Trinity counted louder, not opening her eyes. Her voice started to shake slightly as the light got brighter.

"Eight, nine..."

It was getting harder to keep her eyes closed. Something was willing them to open. Clenching her fists and gritting her teeth, her breathing increased rapidly through her nose.

"Ten..."

Her eyes shot open. A glowing purple hand reached in front of her, just barely brushing her forehead. Everything went black.  
It seemed like less than a minute between when everything went dark and when she opened her eyes. The night sky full of stars looked back down at her with nothing to hide. By now, Trinity was entirely used to landing on the same forest floor. She picked herself up off the ground heading in the same direction she always did. The stone temple was mostly unchanged. Large roots and vines now covered every inch like the earth was trying to drag in the back underground. Like she did several times before, she made her way up the stairs up to the top of the temple. The sounds of the forest were her only company. Once she reached the top, she looked around for anyone.

"Grey," Trinity shouted out, but it only echoed across the temple's stone walls.

She looked over at the entrance that she was too scared to go through her first visit to the forest. It had been covered in giant vines, ones that needed to be cut with a blade to get through.  
"Is anyone there?"

Grey had been missing from the temple for several years now, and no one else, person or animal, was ever around. This didn't stop her from calling out for someone to answer. Maybe she would get lucky. Perhaps, someone would be passing through. After a few minutes, Trinity sat down at the edge of the temple, waiting. The amount of time she would spend here varied from a few minutes to a few hours. Afraid she would get lost, Trinity never ventured away from the temple. The stone building seemed to help bring her back. The few times Trinity did leave the building, it took longer for her to get back to the real world. So she would sit, listening to all the strange noises that came from the forest. They were always different. Weird clicks and growls echoed against the sound of bamboo stocks smacking each other in the wind. Eventually, she closed her eyes, trying to sleep, unaware of the two shadows staring at her from the trees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so Avatar world stuff will be happening in the next chapter. Thanks for baring with me :)


	5. The New World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, How's it going!

Mornings were hard on Trinity now and days. With the purple lady's frequent visits, she didn't sleep very well. If she wasn't awake all night anticipating being teleported to who knows where she actually was teleported to who knows where and stayed up all night. On the rare occasion of sleep in the other world, it didn't seem to register when brought back, being just as tired as if not sleeping at all. Regularly, Trinity would only get two to four hours of sleep a day. Despite her weary body and mind, she started her morning routine as usual. This began with a morning run. Before her sophomore year, she wouldn't be caught dead running; in fact, she hated doing it even now. Unfortunately, it was the only way for her to stay awake until lunchtime without to much trouble. Coffee gave her the jitters than a crash a few hours later. Energy drinks caused the same reaction if not worse and sooner. Trinity found that getting her body moving and eating a light breakfast helped. Though jogging was an undesired activity, it did have its benefits. She was faster than anyone on the track team at her school easily with the stamina of a champion. Her father had told her for years to join the track team, get a scholarship for college, but she had made her decision on that a long time ago.

College was not in her future, and honestly, it was hard to see much of a future for herself past these next several months. Trying to think of something to do with her life always led to a blank canvass. Nothing she could think of didn't involve her passing out or following a ghost around. Her time was running out. She was headed straight for a cloud of unknown darkness, not knowing if she was going to survive the journey. Though dark thoughts passed through her brain every day, she pushed them back. It would be dealt with that when it came.

Trinity's day at school was going rather smoothly today. She had only seen the purple lady twice, talked to Allen for half of one of her classes before getting caught. The rest of the student body acted like she didn't exist, including the regular teasers. This was nothing unusual; even they had to give it a rest sometimes. All she had left to do was tutoring. Hopefully, it wasn't going to be that bad with just her and Mrs. Wolfe. By day's end, all the students shuffled their way out of the school except for sports teams and after-school classes. Trinity made her way to her dull grey locker to get her giant math book when two shadows appeared behind her.

"Hey, freak." Two boys in school uniforms stood next to her locker. Trinity slowly turned around to see the two intimidating males in front of her. She recognized them instantly. Bryan, the one in front, was lean with brown hair and eyes filled with hate. The other, Josh stood further back but was burlier with red hair and blue eyes. They both were the two main, and quite generic, tyrants of the school. Both were on sports teams, threw parties, dated cheerleaders, and liked to pick on the less fortunate. They were a pretty good tag team, Bryan being the skinny and smart one while Josh was the huge, dumb one. Getting caught by these two could lead to a dangerous situation.

"Hey, guys! Brandon, right?" She joked, trying her best to act friendly, hoping that this would just blow over like any other time.

"It's Bryan dumbass," Josh remarked with a smirk.

"Shut it, Josh! This is between her and me," he growled, looking at Trinity with fire in his eyes. The look made her want to shrink away.

"You know, I think Josh would have some pretty good input on what going on here. He's so smart." Unfortunately, her version of friendly was sarcastic, and it was getting her nowhere.

"Quiet!" Bryan yelled.

"Well, I don't see how we can have a decent conversation if I don't tal..."

"I said, shut the fuck up!" Bryan slammed his fist into the locker next to her head, causing her to flinch in the opposite direction. Joking around made the situation worse. Her heart rate went up quickly as a slight feeling of panic settled in. It had been a long time since she has had to deal with anyone physically violent.

"Normally, it's against my morals to beat on a girl. Especially one who's fucked in the head, but I know what you and your little stuttering friend have been up to," Bryan growled, glaring at the girl in front of him.

"I honestly don't recall what on earth you're talking about." Her voice shook slightly, the calm leaking from her body.

"The stink bombs. I know you are the one that makes them, and your little buddy plants them," Bryan hissed in her ear, staying uncomfortably close to her face.

"Those stink bomb pranks have been happening for years, not to mention some of them go off when neither of us is in school," she informed. It was a calculated response formulated a long time ago. She and Allen had fine-tuned a plan to initiate if they were ever caught. As long as Trinity followed the set dialogue and tried to get away from the situation, she should be fine. Moving away from Bryan slowly, Trinity hoped slipping away would work. Every time she moved, he would follow with her.

"Jessica saw your friend putting something in my bag during the second period."

"What, friend?"

"It went off in my car," he growled, ignoring her question.

Trinity couldn't help but cough out a snicker, "Man, that sucks, really it does, but I don't know what to tell you. You've got the wrong, insane person. Now, if you'll excuse me..." She tried to walk away, but the larger of the two grabbed her shoulder, slamming her back into the lockers.

"You're not going anywhere," Josh chuckled.

Trinity closed her eyes to gather her thoughts. The situation was going sour quickly; she needed to think fast. Staying be the lockers was a bad idea. Whatever they wanted to do, it could be done with ease if they stayed stationary. She had to get them moving, somehow.

"Okay, okay. Listen. I'm not the one who makes the stick bombs...," Trinity sighed, looking away from the boys.

"Bull shit."

"Let me finish. I'm not the one that made the stink bombs, but I know who does. They're still in the school."

"I don't believe you."

"You really think someone like me would be able to make bombs?" If there was one thing the entire student body thought of her, it was that she was incapable of doing anything. Bryan thought for a moment considering his options. "Fine. If you take me to them, then you'll get off the hook, but if you're lying." Bryan got uncomfortably close to her face again. "I will make sure the rest of your school year will be the worst thing you've experienced in your life."

"I'll take you to him, no problems," Trinity spoke with confidence, but in reality, she had no idea what her next step was. Usually, the set dialogue could always get her way out of a bad situation. Then she could make a break for it, but this time was different. They were following her too closely, almost expecting her to make a move.

"Josh, stay behind her. Make sure she doesn't run, and you stay next to me. If you even try to run, I'll..."

"Yeah, yeah, the worse experience of my life. I get it," she droned back.

The three began to walk out of the locker area, down the hall. Trinity stayed silent as they walked. She was glad they started moving but still needed a way to escape from the two of them. Running was an option, but she needed a head start, or they could catch her. As they walked, Allen walked in their direction with a few props from the drama club in his hands. He almost dropped everything when he saw Trinity being escorted by, in his opinion, the worst two guys in the school. Trying his best not to draw attention to himself, he looked at Trinity, trying to signal whether she needed help or not. The sight of Allen almost made her sigh in relief. He wouldn't leave until she was safe again, she knew that.

Thankfully, they both had come up with alternative plans just in case something like this happened. Trinity raised her hand and scratched behind her neck. The two escorting her didn't think anything about the move, but Allen knew what to do. He walked past the group silently, making sure to hide his face with one of the props. Once Allen was passed, he waited, only moving toward them when they got more than ten steps away. Keeping his ears and eyes open, he waiting for the next signal.

"So um, what are you going to do anyway? I could just go to a teacher right after this, you know," Trinity stated.

"Does it even matter," Josh claimed, pushing her by the shoulder, almost knocking her down. "You won't remember anyway."

Trinity pushed down any anger that boiled up with the shove and gave a confused look. "Why would I not remember?"

"You forget things cuz your brains all fucked up, right?"

"Mm, no sweetheart, that's not how that works at all," Trinity explained with a bit of humor in her voice. Bryan turned his head to Josh with a scowl, "She's a Schizo, Josh."

"Wha does that mean?" Josh responded, scratching his chin.

Trinity barked out a laugh while Bryan explained rather slowly, "It means she sees shit and thinks it's real."

"Whoa, that's crazy! What do ya see?"

"Unicorns, mostly unicorns," Trinity responded flatly, scratching at her neck again. Allen took the signal, looking around to see if someone was walking by while still keep ten paces away from the group.

"Those exist?" Josh gasped, his face genuinely astonished.

"Yup, I see them all the time. If you want, I can show you one?"

"What? Where?"

Allen looked around frantically. He had to find someone quick, or this wouldn't work. Just when Allen was thinking no one would show, a girl turned into the hall. She would do, but he would have to walk quickly.

"If you look carefully..." Trinity turned toward Josh, walking backward just as Allen was passing by the group heading for the girl.

"There's one right over…" She pretended to look around Josh like she was searching for one. Bryan also turned his head to see his idiot friend's reaction when he didn't see anything. While Josh looked around confused, Allen braced himself for impact.

"There!" she shouted loud enough so Allen could hear her. Josh looked to where Trinity was pointing while Allen crashed into the girl, causing her to scream and loud crashing noise. Bryan stopped looking over at the small accident that had happened to the left of him. By the time he looked away from the crash, Trinity was gone.

"Hey, get back here!" Bryan chased after her without Josh. "Josh! C' mon she tricked you, man." Josh's eyes shot open and saw the two running off.

"Hey, wait for me!"

Allen looked on as the three took off. Trinity was fast, very fast. She should be able to get away from the two of them quickly. He turned to the girl in front of him and gave a weak smile. "I-I'm s-so sorry about tha-that. Seems I-I tried t-to carry t-to mu-much."

Trinity bolted through the school building like a racehorse. Running from others wasn't unfamiliar to her. This time was a bit different, though. The two following her were athletes, and Bryan, in particular, was catching up. To get away, she made her way outside, where she could hopefully hide. That's when it appeared. The glowing purple woman appeared behind the setting sun a few feet in front of her, staying equidistant from her as she ran. It beckoned her to follow, holding her hand out. "Come, it's time," the woman called out. Her voice echoed in Trinity's brain.

Trinity looked behind to see the boys catching up fast. She looked forward again, the woman was still there, leading her into the nearby woods. Feeling herself turning toward her, almost in a daze, she shook her head. Trying to focus on getting away from her pursuers, but focusing was becoming harder and harder. "One, two, three…gah," she growled. Too much going on to count. The running, the panic of getting caught, and trying to stay away from the woman heavy on her mind. It became impossible to look elsewhere as she ran. She was calling her. With Bryan was only a few paces away, the woods became the only option.

"I feel like this is a really, really bad idea, but to hell with it," Trinity panted as she jumped over a log and ran into the trees. She unconsciously followed the purple woman into the woods farther and farther away from the school like a beacon. When they were far in the woods, and could no longer hear the boys yelling after her, they stopped.

"Come, it's time," the purple woman beckoned, holding her hand out to the exasperated girl.

"Time for what? I don't know what you mean," Trinity panted back, still looking back to make sure the boys weren't catching up.

She reached her hand out toward Trinity again, "It's time to go." Her voice sounded sad and longing, somehow familiar.

Trinity sighed, looking away from the woman. She could start to hear the two boys in the distance, yelling for her. Taking in a deep breath through her nose, she closed her eyes to weigh her options. Calling for help was one, but then it would take a while for them find her. In that amount of time, the boys would catch up to her. Running was another, but running further would only get her lost. Passing out and being lost did not go together at all. Climbing a tree could work to hide, but if the purple woman touched her, she could blackout in a tree. Any fall from that height would cause some damage. There was the option of just getting caught by the two boys. The 'worst experience of her life' as Brain put it might not be that bad. Then there was the last and final option, one she didn't like one bit. Following the purple lady. She looked up to the glowing purple light. The woman stood with her hand extended like it was before. Trinity couldn't look for too long, or she would be drawn in again. She walked deeper into the woods, knowing that the glowing light was following right behind her. Maybe walking in a straight line long enough would make the woman go away. In the back of her mind, she knew that wasn't true.

"Trinity…" The woman's sad, soft voice called out to her again, causing her to stop walking.

"Why?" Trinity didn't turn toward her as she spoke, "Why now. What could possibly be the difference between now and the past twelve years?"

"Time, it's short."

"What does that mean? Why do you have to be so cryptic!?" she yelled, finally turned to face the woman. Her hand was down, but she looked into Trinity's eyes. They were somber, almost like she regretted asking to come with her. Trinity thought of what Allen said to her yesterday. "If I go with you, will you go away. If I do whatever it is you want me to do, you'll leave."

The glowing woman's only response was her extending her hand out once again for Trinity to touch. She glanced down at the outreached hand, slowly stepped toward the purple woman. "That's not much reassurance," she grumbled to herself. "Okay, I'm just going to figure out what you want, and that's it."

She slowly reached for the purple lady's extended limb, still hesitating slightly. As soon as her skin barely touched the glowing hand, everything went black. Trinity's head slammed against cold hard ground covered in green leaves and pines. She hissed as she sat up and rubbed her head.

"That was a hard landing. You couldn't have put me down gently?"  
Standing up, she looked around. The sun was setting, surrounded by recognizable pine and bamboo trees. "Okay, well, everything is the same so far. Though it does look a bit different with some sunlight," she mumbled to herself, walking in the direction of the temple. The walk seemed longer than it usually was, but she continued on until she heard a weird gurgling noise quite close by.

"Okay, that's new," she whispered to herself, stopping to look around. There had never been any sort of life so close in the forest other than the old lady. Slowly, Trinity walked forward until another growl and rustle came from in front of her again. Her eyes widened as she stopped again, "O-okay, who's out there?"

The rustling continued getting louder and louder until a giant brown bear with a duckbill and beaver tail came out from the bushes. Trinity stood there, eyes wide, mouth agape.

"That's not normal," she gaped as the bear stood on two feet and let out a roar.

"Okay! Okay! Is it a bear? You're supposed to play dead?"  
The bear roared again, slamming back down on four feet charging. Trinity screamed, taking off away from the bear. "Not dead, don't play dead!" She yelled, running as fast through the forest. Though the girl was fast, there was no possible way to outrun a bear; she needed to hide. Spotting a thicket to bamboo off to the left, Trinity made a quick turn toward it. There was no possible way the bear could fit through the thick bamboo. Quickly squeezing her way through the woody grass, she reached a clearing of spread out bamboo and pine trees. Turning around, she slowed looking for the bear until suddenly the back of her legs hit some rock, plunging her in some lukewarm water. Instincts immediately kicked in as she struggled to get out of the water, hitting something on the way up. As soon as her head breached, she turned, finding an old man just as shocked as she was.

"Ahh!" Trinity screamed, trying to crawl her way out of the rock tub.

"Wait, there is no need to be alarmed," the old man said, putting his arms up.

"No need to be..." she fell out of the tub on her back, immediately standing up, facing the man. "No need to be alarmed! I just ran from a half bear half duck and then fell into a naked fat man's rock tub thing! This is the perfect time to be alarmed!"

The old man gave a blank look them looked down at his belly, poking it "Am I really that fat?"

Trinity's face flattened. "I don't think that's the main issue here," she uttered, crossing her arms, tapping her foot. She wiped some of the water off her face, "Listen, I'm sorry I intruded on, whatever you're doing, but can you point me in the direction of a big stone temple. I normally head straight there, but the…bear with a duckbill started chasing me." She stopped for a minute and thought about what she said. "I'm sorry this must sound like absolute gibberish."

"Hmm, I didn't know platypus bears were common in these areas. It must have been frightening being chased by one."

"A platypus...bear? Wha…" Trinity stopped when the earth began to shake and rumble like an earthquake behind both of them.  
Trinity turned to see a dust cloud snaking its way through the trees. Before she could think about running again, she felt something hard and rough graze up her skin. Droplets of water hit her in the face as she turned to see the old man was surrounded by sharp rocks.

"The hell!" She struggled a bit but couldn't move. "Is this rock?"  
Three men dressed in all green jumped out from the trees, two with fists pointed at the old man, one man aimed at her. Two others dressed in the same outfits walked out from the trees, observing the scene. "A fire nation soldier," one of them said, picking up the old man's clothes off of a tree branch.

"He's no ordinary soldier. This is the fire lord's brother, the dragon of the west. The once-great General Iroh, but now he's our prisoner."

The other man chuckled, "What about this one over here?" Pointing to Trinity.

"If she's not tied up, then she must be an accomplice of his, take her prisoner to."

Her eyes widened, "Wait, what? Listen, I just need directions. I don't even know who this guy is?"

"How disgraceful; you fire nation scum are all alike. You'll do anything to save your skin."

"What are you talking about? I don't know what a fire nation is."  
The rough surface was binding her down suddenly fell only to be grabbed by the man closest to her. He grabbed both of her arms, shackling them together across her chest, then tied her feet with rope.

"The hell is wrong with you people?" She looked to the side to see the old man was getting the same treatment. "What did you do?" she whispered the older man.

Iroh didn't say anything. By the time it turned dark the both of them were loaded onto, what Trinity could only describe as giant emus and were on their way. Before Trinity could ask anything, Iroh spoke up, "Where are you taking us?"

"We're taking you to face justice," the man on the same ostrich horse said darkly.

"Right. But where, specifically?"

"A place you're quite familiar with, actually. You once laid siege to it for 600 days, but it would not yield to you."

"Ah! The great city of Ba-Sing-Se." Iroh said wistfully.

"What's Ba-Sing-Se?" Trinity interjected but was ignored.

"It was greater than you were, apparently."

"Being ignored, great," she grumbled, wiggling around.

"I acknowledged my defeat at Ba-Sing-Se! After 600 days away from home, my men were tired, and I was tired," Iroh yawned, "and I'm still tired." In a loud thud, Iroh fell off of the horse, appearing to fall asleep.

"Hey, uh, guys, he fell off the emu," Trinity pointed out flatly.

All of the soldiers stopped, two of them hopping down off the horses to pick the man up and put him back on. Trinity looked down to see Iroh's sandal lying on the ground.

"Hey, you dropped your..." Iroh made a motion for her to stay quiet, but the solider on her horse heard her.

"What was dropped?"

"Uh, Nothing?" Trinity looked around and shrugged.

The soldier growled, "Keep quiet, or we'll gag you as well."

"Well, that just seems inappropriate, we did just meet."

"Quite!"

The ride, after that, was relatively quiet until daylight. Trinity was almost falling asleep until she heard Iroh gasp. She looked in the same direction to see a dragon flying above her head with someone riding on top.

"What the hell is that?" She yelled out.

"What's the problem."

"Nothing," Iroh spoke up.

"What do you mean nothing? Did you not see that!?"

"Actually, she's right. There is a bit of a problem. My old joints are feeling sore and achy, and these shackles are too loose."

"Too loose," one of the soldiers spoke up?

"Too loose? What's that got to do with the thing that just flew above our heads?"

"What thing is she talking about," a soldier demanded?

"It was nothing, just a large bird that I haven't seen before. I've done my fair share of bird watching in my old age, you know."

Trinity was speechless.

"As I was saying before, the cuffs are loose, and they jangle around and bump my wrists. It would help me if you would tighten them so they wouldn't shake around so much," Iroh asked, giving a very goofy grin.

"Very well. Corporal, tighten the prisoner's handcuffs."

They all came to a halt. The Corporal got down from his horse and turned to Trinity. "Do yours need tightening as well?"

"What? No, but I wouldn't mind you loosening them," she requested, giving off the same goofy grin. The man gave a glare turned his attention to the Iroh. "Hey, don't ignore me! That was an earnest request," she shouted.

Right before the Corporal touched Iroh's shackles, Iroh breathed out hot steam from his nose, causing it to turn red hot. Trinity's eyes widened then blinked rapidly, thinking her eyes were playing tricks on her. Iroh pressed the Corporal's hand into the hot metal, causing him to scream then jumped off of the horse shooting fire out of his feet. At that point, Trinity knew she was dreaming, but she still stared eye's wide and jaw dropped from what she just saw.

"I have to be dreaming. I have to be dreaming. I have to dreammahh!!" She couldn't finish her sentence as the horse freaked from the fire, causing her to go tumbling down into a giant canyon along with Iroh. A barrage of rocks and dust followed them down the canyon, burying them from the neck down when they reached the bottom. Their captures slid down the cliff after them, catching up quickly.

"They are too dangerous, Captain. We can't just carry them to the capital. We have to do something now."

"I agree. He must be dealt with immediately and severely."

Trinity was too much in a daze to hear what they said. She felt the rock lift off of her body and being dragged forward somewhere. She was startled back to full reality when she heard a boom of a boulder breaking into pieces. Another man with a ponytail and pointed armor stood in-front of Iroh. He kicked the chain holding the two, freeing Iroh but leaving Trinity halfway tied to the rock. She didn't hear whatever was said, she was too busy trying to free herself from the shackle holding her down. Suddenly, there was shots of heat and the sound of large boulders being thrown and broken. She looked up to find all of the men throwing rocks or fire at each other in some sort of magical battle.

Trinity continued to struggle with the shackle, "Didn't your mothers ever teach not to throw rocks or play with fire," she shouted but was unheard! A piece of rock whizzed by scraping her cheek as she became more desperate to free herself.

"Oh come on, I just want to get out of here." As soon as she finished her plea, the rock lifted up on its own, freeing her.  
"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you." Trinity made a break for it when something hard hit the back of her head, knocking her out cold.

"Hello, young lady," Iroh's voice echoed in her head as she began to wake up. Her eyes fluttered open as he started to speak again. "Are you alright?" Trinity's head bobbed up and down as she recovered her bearings.

"What happened?" She groaned, her head pounding.

"You were injured in the battle. Prince Zuko and I helped you out of the canyon."

"Battle?" She hissed blinked, trying to straighten out her vision.  
Another voice began to talk a little farther away. "Uncle, we don't have time for this. I saw the Avatar's bison fly to the west. He'll be gone if we don't hurry."

"Prince Zuko, it is my fault this girl was captured, and now she is injured. It is my responsibility to make sure she is safe enough to go home."

"This girl is probably from one of these earth kingdom villages. As soon as she wakes up, she'll run to find more soldiers. We should leave someone will find her on the path."

"No, it is too dangerous. We will take the girl to the village that is west of here. If she is earth kingdom, then she will stay with them."

"What do mean, if? She has to be..."

"I do not think this girl is from here. She was quite lost when she ran into me, among other things."

Her head couldn't really process the conversation or what was going on. She felt herself being carried then plopped in a sitting position on something scaly and rough. When she touched her head, there was a rough bandage wrapped around her forehead that was slightly wet in the back. The two men got on next, one in front and one behind her, making sure she didn't fall off. Trinity slowly began to regain control of her movement and mind as they trudged on. She blinked a few times before setting her head up completely.

"What's going on?"

"Ah, you are awake. I'm glad to see you are alright," a familiar voice behind her said.

"Old man?"

"Please, call me Iroh. If you do not mind me asking, what is your name?"

"Trinity. Trinity Hale and if you don't mind me asking, where are we going?"

"We're dropping you off at the earth kingdom village up ahead," the man in front of her said.

"Okay, so what's the earth kingdom?"

The price scrunched his face, confused at the question. He didn't bother asking or answering as they approached the village in front of them. She would be gone soon anyway. He had more important things to think about. As Zuko hopped off of the rhino to interrogate the villager, Iroh took the time to ask some questions.

"Do you mind if I ask where you came from?" Trinity didn't respond immediately. She was to busy watching the younger male threaten some random guy dressed in green.

"Your partner there is shoving people around pretty hard," Trinity said wide-eyed.

"Ah, yes, Prince Zuko's methods are a bit excessive," Iroh chuckled, scratching the back of his head.

"I mean, I guess if it gets the job done but jeez...Did you ask me something?"

"Ah, yes, before you ran into me, where did you come from?"

"I'm from Northborough, Mass. but I'm starting to think you don't know where that is," she replied, carefully looking back at Iroh. "Ah, man, you're still naked, c'mon," quickly turning back around.

"Hmm, I have not heard of that area. You have never seen this village before or its people?"

"Nope, honestly, I've never been out of that forest when I come here. That temple I asked about earlier is where I always stayed when I come here."

"I know nothing of a stone temple being in this area, but I can ask the villager. If you will excuse me for just one moment." Iroh hopped off of the rhino and walked over to Zuko, who was threatening the poor villager with fire in his hand.

"Uncle, the Avatar is headed to the crescent island. We need to leave now."

"Right, I would like to ask him one thing."

The villager was cowering in the corner, his arm covering his face. "Can you tell me if you recognize that girl?" Iroh pointed over to Trinity, who had hopped off the rhino, staring off into the woods. The villager put his arm down for a second to look at the girl.

"N-no, no, I've never seen her before."

"What about a stone temple."

"N-never. There is only forest around here," the villager stuttered, shaking.

"Hmm," Iroh turned to Zuko, stroking his beard. "I would like to take the girl with us."

"What why? There's no reason to…"

"Listen to me, Prince Zuko. This girl does not come from here, and she seems to have some connection to the spirit world."

"So what?"

"I do not know where she comes from, but she seems to be able to sense, even see spirits."

"I'm still not understanding why we should bring her." He glared, crossing his arms and tapping his foot. Time was running out, and his Uncle was drabbling on about some girl.

"Because, if she is a link to the spirit world, then she is a link to…"

"The Avatar," Zuko growled with wide eyes. He marched over to Trinity, who was still staring into the woods.

"You, you're coming with us."

Trinity didn't divert her attention, "Do you know that a giant panda bear is walking around in there."

"What?" Zuko looked for a second only to turn back around. "Stop talking nonsense! You're coming with us to find the Avatar."

"Sure thing but, ah two things. One: I don't know what an avatar is, and two no," Trinity responded, looking at him.

"What do you mean, no?"

"I mean no, as in, not gonna happen. Unless you know where the stone temple is, I have no reason to follow you. I will thank you for saving me and wrapping my head, but that's as far as I can go."  
Trinity tried to walk off. Maybe one of these people knew how to get back to the temple. Zuko had other plans. He grabbed her wrist, pulling her toward him.

"You're coming with us, whether you agree or not."

"You're not about to capture me, are you?" Zuko grabbed her other wrist and began to tie them together.

"I'm really being captured again, great. This is awesome. I love being captured!" Trinity wailed, sarcastically as she was thrown over the rhinos back.

"Uncle, hurry up, we're leaving." Iroh hurried over to the beast and climbed on as well as Zuko, and they rode back into the forest.

Far away from the group stood the stone temple covered in green moss and vines. Two tall figures stood at the top of the steps staring out into the forest. Black clothes covered their entire bodies with hoods and gloves. The only color that could be seen was in the masks that covered their faces. The male on the right was wearing a long red sorcerer's mask with two wide eyes, defined cheeks, and pointy teeth were protruding out its gaping mouth. The woman on the left wore a green exorcizing mask with three wide eyes and five mini skulls lining the top. Gold trim lined the eyebrows, cheeks, and around the gaping mouth with large teeth sticking out. "It's been two nights, something must have happened. We need to find the girl," the woman grumbled impatiently in a raspy voice.

"Stay calm, Zheng. We'll wait for our orders as always," the male stated, crossing his arms.

"Orders smorders. We've been waiting seventeen years for orders, and now that she's finally ready, we can't just go snatch her up. Maybe it's time for us to break the rules a little."

"Rule-breaking leads to chaos, chaos leads too..."

"Irreversible damage to me and the things around me."

"And?"

Zheng sighed, "And a furious Shen."

"Yes, rules are there for a reason and aren't meant to be broken."

"Except when you play Pai sho," Zheng grumbled.

"I do not cheat at Pai sho!" Shen shouted, utterly losing his composure, stomping his foot on the ground.

"Sure you didn't, that white dragon tile just came out of nowhere," Zheng taunted, poking at Shen's shoulder.

"I told you the white dragon can land anywhere and steal enemy pieces!"

"Says who?"

"The rules!"

"Here we go again with the rules thing."

Shen screamed out in the air in frustration, almost lunging at Zheng when a messenger hawk landed on the top step.

"A message," Shen said, stopping his assault, grabbing the letter.

"Finally, what is say?" Shen took a second to read the letter in full

"She's been captured by the prince of the fire nation."

"Well, isn't that convenient." Zheng said sarcastically, "So, we going to get her?"

"No"

"No?"

"We are to observe her from afar and not interfere unless she is in life-threatening danger." Silence befell both of them as slowly turned to face each other.

Zheng grumbled, "Well, that sucks."

"I agree."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We made it! However, just because we're in the avatar world now doesn't mean the real world is no longer critical. Thanks for reading :)


	6. The Pulse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, How's it going. Welcome back.

"Okay, so how about this. You guys let me go, and I'll teach you how to make a stink bomb." Trinity's voice jumped as the rhino ran at top speed through the woods.

"Oh, that sounds intriguing! What does that do?" Iroh mused.

"It's a bomb that smells like wet diaper and skunk. It can clear a building if you make it right."

"Hmm, I see, and what is the purpose of these bombs?"

"I used them as a prank. Put them in people's bags and whatnot. It ruins clothing and cars apparently."

"Would you two keep quiet!? I've heard enough of your babbling!" Zuko snapped.

The three of them had been riding through the bamboo forest for thirty minutes. During that time, Trinity tried talking her way out of the situation more times than she could count. Unfortunately for her, there was no Allen to help her bailout, and running wasn't an option at the moment. At the very least, the man in front of her was only bad-tempered, not outwardly violent. She wasn't ignored the entire time with Iroh entertaining her crazy ideas. Zuko, on the other hand, was none too happy.

"Well, I wouldn't be babbling if you didn't tie my hands together and capture me!"

"We will let you go if you have no use to us. If you can help us capture the Avatar, then…"

"I told you for the umpteenth time; I don't know what an Avatar is!" Trinity lightly bumped his shoulder with her head. The momentum caused Zuko to slide forward on the rhino. She hissed due to her previous injury.

"Your lies will not fool me," Zuko snapped, turning his head to her scooting back up on the rhino.

"I promise you I'm not lying. I don't even see a benefit to lying to you at this point," Trinity groaned, her head slightly ringing.

"Maybe we should hold on the hostility, for now, the ship is just ahead of us," Iroh interrupted as the rhino slowed.

They approached a large black pointed ship docked on the ocean shore. The group came to a stop at the front of the ship opened up, steam leaking from the corners. Two soldiers in red and black armor and white masks ran down the ramp grabbing the rains of the rhino, walking it forward.

"Never mind about the stink bombs." Trinity frowned, waving her head back and forth, trying not to smell the steam.

"You get used to it," Iroh chuckled.

The rhino made its way up the ramp reaching the top. A soldier in the same armor ran up to greet them, "Prince Zuko, General Iroh, you've returned."

"Yes, and I want this ship, full steam ahead to Roku's Island. The Avatar is headed there," Zuko ordered, hopping off the rhino.

"Hey, what are you going to do with me, huh? Have I proven that I'm completely useless yet?" Trinity slightly struggled with the rope around her wrists. Zuko turned and glared at her, "And throw her in a cell!"

"Yes, sir," the soldier responded, grabbing Trinity off of the rhino.

"Hey, C'mon! You're not going to question him at all! No, who is she? Where did she come from? Why did you capture this poor unwilling girl who has nothing to do with anything!?" Trinity shouted as she was carried away. She was roughly thrown into a dark red room with a metal bench chained to the wall, the only light being two torches on either side of the wall. Trinity started pacing the small room. "Okay, okay, I'm locked in a cell on a ship. I'm about to go sailing most likely thousands of miles away from where I need to be." Sucking in a big gulp of air before letting out in one big groan, she flopped on the floor. "Fuck me. I need to get out of here." She looked around the metal room. There were no windows to break nor cracks or holes to breakthrough. The only thing she had to work with was the barred door. Breaking doors wasn't hard though she had never had to deal with a large metal one before. Never the less, all of them had one weakness; the hinges. Looking at the pins, they weren't welded, which meant she could very effortlessly bring down this door. She just needed the right tools; some kind of blunt object and screwdriver. First things first, though, the ropes around her wrists needed to go. She looked at the metal bench on the wall. The edges seemed just sharp enough to work.

Iroh quickly made his way to his room to change into some clothes. He hoped that he could free the mysterious girl from the cell she was thrown in before she became too scared or angry to corporate. After dressing in his clothes, he hurried down to the cells of the ship at the same pace as the soldiers running around doing various things. Just as he reached the cells, one of the doors fell with a loud crash startling him. Trinity poked her head out the open doorway to the blinking Iroh. She slowly stepped out of the room. "Sorry about that. It was a bit more dramatic than I thought."

"You took down the door?" Iroh stammered, still a bit shocked.

"I-I can fix it," she stammered in a small voice expecting to be yelled at and thrown in another cell.

"That is quite extraordinary!" Iroh walked around the doorway, looking up and down. "How did you do it?"

Trinity walked into the cell and pointed at the hinges, "Well, every hinge on a door is relatively the same. If you can remove the pins from the knuckles, then the door has nothing to hold on to so…wait, you're not mad?"

"In all my years, I have never seen someone break down a door like this without bending. I cannot be anything but amazed." Iroh circled around the door looking inside the room. The ropes that restrained her were cut, the metal bench was broken off its restraints. One of the long sharp metal bolts holding the chain to the wall was on the ground. This time it was Trinity's turn to be slightly shocked. "Oh…well um…okay." She wasn't used to being complimented on destroying things. In fact, she wasn't used to being complimented at all. It was all a bit awkward, to say the least.

"Well, you certainly can't say here any longer," he chuckled, turning back to her, "come with me." Trinity silently followed behind, still a little enamored that Iroh was amazed at her destruction.

"How are you fairing?"

Trinity's face flattened, "Doing as well as anybody who's been captured against their will."

"I am sorry for my nephew's hostility. He is not very good at asking permission."

"I noticed."

"How about your head? Do you wish to see a medic?"

"No, I'm fine. I've got a pretty thick skull." All the times of being teleported to the forest headfirst flashed through her mind. The flying rock wasn't so bad.

"Well, I hope we haven't upset you too much. I would like the opportunity to explain if you'll allow me the honor."

"Uh, sure."

The duo passed narrow metal halls with steam leaking through every corner. Trinity was already starting to sweat. They made their way up to the control room, where at least ten people were running around fiddling with different knobs and levers. Zuko was marching around the small room, barking orders to every living thing that entered his sight. Iroh walked in and pulled out a small table and a tea set while Trinity stepped in and off to the side.

"Uncle, what are you doing? This is no time for tea!"

"If Trinity is going to help us find the Avatar, she must at least understand what he is."

"We don't have time for that Uncle we have too..."

"The Avatar is miles ahead of us, Prince Zuko. I'm sure you can direct the crew until he is spotted."

Zuko let out a frustrated growl smoke leaking from between his teeth. Never the less he marched out of the room, yelling at the unfortunate soul who happened to pass by at the same time. "Please take a seat. Would you like some tea?" Iroh pointed to the other side of a table. Trinity sat on a pillow next to the table with a confused look, "I don't really like tea, but thanks."

Iroh looked up in shock. Trinity gave a confused look then looked around her to see what he was so shocked about. "You okay?" she asked, still perplexed. Iroh shook his head and sighed, walking over to the other side of the table, sitting down. "It is a shame you have the same opinion about tea as my nephew."

"I-I'm sorry?" It came out more like a confusing question than a genuine apology. "No, no. There is no need to apologize," he said, pouring himself some tea. "Tell me, what do you know about bending?"

"You mean making a straight thing into a curved thing."

"No."

"Bending over?"

Iroh responded by making a fireball in his hand and putting it under his cup, causing the tea to boil. "This is bending."

Trinity didn't know how long she stared at the old man. This was the kind of thing she'd only seen in movies and TV shows. Her mind tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for the magic fire, something up his sleeve, or maybe a powder. Then she thought when they were captured only yesterday. The man had produced flames from his bare feet with nothing hidden. Come to think of it, the guys in green made rocks move on their own as well. Her head began to throb when basic logic wasn't answering her questions.

"Wha? How?"

Iroh held up his hand with a gentle smile, "Before I go into explaining, I would like to apologize to you." Iroh looked around the room before speaking again. "I do not truly know if you have a connection to the Avatar or not, but it was the only way I could get my nephew to bring you on the ship." He put his left fist against his open right palm and bowed. "I do hope you accept my apology."

Trinity started blinking for a second before responding, "Uh, it's fine, really. As long as I can get home, but why did you want me on this ship, to begin with?"

"There are a couple of reasons." Iroh set his cup down and reached over for a scroll sitting on a nearby shelf. He rolled out the parchment to reveal a map that had one colossal landmass surrounded by smaller islands. Individual landmasses had different colors that matched the colors of four symbols on each corner of the scroll.

"Well, this is very different." The map looked nothing of the world she was from at all. There was always the suspicion that she was no longer in the world she grew up in, but it was never confirmed. Trinity never left the forest. Hell, she barely would let the temple get out of sight. In her mind, this place was a dream state. A place to go when she blacked out in the real world. That forest expanding into an entire world with people and places caused her stomach to twist.

"So you truly are lost," he stated, staring at Trinity stare blankly at the map. He recognized the misplaced look in her eyes.

"I have no reason to lie to you," she mumbled, still staring at the map.

Iroh sipped his tea again before responding, "When we were captured by the Earth Kingdom soldiers, you seemed confused by familiar landmarks and basic knowledge. For example, Ba-Sing-Se."

"I still don't know what that is."

Iroh pointed to a large circle to the north-east on the map. "It is the capital of the Earth Kingdom."

"And the Earth Kindom is?"

"One of the four nations. There are four nations in the world, the water tribes," Iroh pointed at the north and South Pole. "The earth kingdom," he traced to the vast continent and three smaller islands to the south of that. "The air nomads," he pointed to clusters of mountainous islands at the north, south, east, and west. "And the fire nation," he led to more massive isles of the west.

Trinity rubbed her temples to appease the oncoming headache. It was simple enough to understand, but the fact that she was no longer in her own world was still hammering her skull. "So, you picked me up because I don't know common knowledge? I don't mean to be rude, but I feel like that's not a good enough reason."

"You are correct, but there was one other thing that solidified my decision. You also saw the spirit fly above our head when we were captured by those soldiers."

"Spirit?" She thought for a minute then looked up at him, "That long snake thing flying through the air?"

"They can't be seen by most people. You seeing one is quite rare."

Trinity couldn't find the words to respond. Not only was she in a new world, but she was able to see spirits. Thinking about it now, seeing apparitions wasn't too shocking. The purple lady had always been a ghost that only she could see. It made sense that in this place, where she assumed the purple woman was from, that there would be others. Though it wasn't shocking, it didn't bring any comfort. Having more than one spirit following her around, potentially knocking her out, was trouble. The only solution she could think of was getting further away, the more this ship sailed. Trinity looked back down at the map. There was no way she could get back to the temple if she didn't even know where she was. "Where are we now?"

Iroh pointed to a small forest near a mountain range and led to a crescent island. "This is where we are headed. The Avatar should be headed in the same direction."

There was another term used regularly, that had no meaning in her dictionary. She remembered the angry guy saying she could help them find it. "Is that another spirit, like that snake thing?" It was the only logical explanation of why they would want her.

"Not necessarily. He is greatly connected to spirits and the spirit world. Which is why..."

"You think I can help you find him."

Iroh nodded, sipping his tea again. If her head weren't hurting from the previous discoveries, it would have started ten fold then. Too many questions ran through her head.

"So, you guys are trying to capture him?"

"Yes."

"Because he's important?"

"His capture would put an end to this war."

"There's a war too!?" Trinity smacked her palms against her temples several times before continuing. "So you guys are going to use him to end a war. I'm assuming the other nations, kingdoms, and tribes are trying to capture him as well. Like a power struggle thing?"

"The fire nation is fighting against the other three. We are the only ones trying to capture the Avatar." Iroh took a sip of his tea before explaining, "The only way to end the war is to capture him. Prince Zuko has been tasked with the important duty of capturing him and bringing him back to the fire nation. It seems that you have a connection to the spirit world. The Avatar is the bridge between the spirit world and the mortal world. You may be able to connect with him somehow and help us find him."

Trinity's eye twitched as she stared at Iroh, mouth agape. "So let me this get this straight." She leaned over the table, "You fire guys are at war with three other nations based on elements?"

"Correct."

"And the only way you guys can win is if you capture this Avatar person?"

Iroh nodded.

"And you think I can find him somehow?"

"Among other things, yes, that is what I believe."

Trinity stared blankly at Iroh, "Are you freakin' nuts!" She stared at Iroh with utter shock. There was no way she could help them capture this guy. She could barely do day to day tasks without passing out. "I don't even know what this guy looks like. Even if I can see spirits, you obviously can to so I don't see the reason why I'm needed. Not to mention that you and apparently everyone else can somehow manipulate elements. Can this Avatar guy do the same?"

"He will be capable of bending all four."

"Great, so if I do get close to this dude, won't he just blast me with fire? Or maybe he'll crush me with a rock-like those green guys."

"The Avatar has not learned the other elements yet. He only knows air bending for now."

"Well, I guess that's better than being blasted with fire, but I still don't see how I can help you guys capture him." Trinity threw her hands up in protest. Iroh began to roll the map back up, "Well..." The two were interrupted when the door behind them busted open,

"General Iroh, you've been summoned to the front of the deck, the Avatar has been spotted."

"Ah, yes, follow me."

Trinity tentatively stood, following Iroh down some stairs. A blast of cold air and the smell of ocean water hit her when the door to outside opened. The ship was charging forward at full speed through the open ocean while Zuko looked through a spyglass in front of them. Trinity stayed behind Iroh, squinting to see what Zuko was looking at but didn't see anything. The two men began to talk when she felt something, almost like a pulse coming from the sky. She rubbed the side of her head with her hand. Though the feeling wasn't enough to worsen her headache, it did make her try to find the source of this weird feeling. She squinted at the sky and saw something flying around up there.

"What is that? The big fluffy thing in the sky?" Trinity asked, her voice slightly strained.

Zuko moved the spyglass back and forth until he found what he was looking for. "There they are! Helmsman, full steam ahead!"

The strange feeling got stronger as they got closer. Now the sensation was starting to worsen the headache. The pulsing was going in rhythm with the mild pounding in Trinity's head. She slowly backed up to the wall next to the door and slid down, rubbing her head. Iroh, who was fanning away the stench of the fireballs, turned to see Trinity hunkered down in the corner. He trotted over to her, "Are you alright?" he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. Trinity's head shot up, glanced at Iroh, then the up at the sky. "Y-yeah, just a bit of a headache. Probably from the hit yesterday."

"Hmm…" Iroh looked up at Zuko, who was gawking at a blockade dead ahead of them. "Technically, you are still in Earth Kingdom waters. Turn back now, and they cannot arrest you." Zuko glared at Iroh then turned to look back.

"He's not turning around," Zuko growled.

"Please, Prince Zuko, if the Fire Nation captures you, there is nothing I can do. Do not follow the Avatar!" Zuko lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Uncle," he whispered to himself. He turned to the helmsman, pointing forward, "Run the blockade!" Iroh let out a disappointed sigh then turned back to Trinity. She was now standing, rubbing her temples with her fingers. He walked over to her, "Are you feeling any better now?"

"Little bit, I'm kinda getting over it."

"Maybe you have more of a connection than previously believed?"

"I don't have any connecting power thing. It's from the rock that hit me yesterday. I'll be fine."

"That is also possible. Would you like to see the doctor on the ship?"

"Nah, it will go away. I think the info dump and the speeding ship made it worse."

The ship suddenly shook violently along with a loud boom and explosion. Billows of black smoke poured from the top of the vessel and up in the air. "Prince Zuko, the engines are damaged! We need to stop and make repairs," an engine worker shouted.

"Do not stop this ship," he ordered. The ships causing the blockage continued to launch fireballs in the Avatar's direction and just barely missing Zuko's ship. The boat approached the Fire Navy's blockade. As Zuko's vessel gets closer, the ships of the blockade move towards each other to bar his way.

Iroh's eyes widened, "We're on a collision course!"

"We can make it!" Zuko shouted back.

"Well, this isn't exactly how I imagined I would die," Trinity grumbled. Hell, maybe she'd wake up in the real world after impact, like a dream.

"Me neither," Iroh quipped back, making Trinity snort out a laugh.

The blocking ships suddenly started moving, opening a path for Zuko's boat to pass through. Iroh looked at the blockade, fading into the distance, looking pensive as he strokes his beard. "What is he thinking?"

"Well that was anticlimactic, was getting ready to blow up. Had my will ready and everything." Trinity leaned over the rail, watching the ships disappear.

"Are you feeling any better?" Iroh placed a hand on her back, his face riddled with concern. She gave a small smile,

"There's still a little bit of a buzz there, but it's starting to go away. When the ship was hit, we slowed down. I think that helped." Trinity turned, watching the billows of smoke escape from the ship. Several of the crew were running around in a panic, trying to correct the problem.

Zuko leaned on the rail of the ship, his hands clenched tight. "What's he up to, Uncle? Why didn't Commander Zhao arrest me?"

"Because he wants to follow you. He knows you'll lead him to the prize you're both after...the Avatar."

"I can't let him catch the Avatar."

Trinity listened to the duo while watching the crew run around with different tools, buckets of water, and fans attempting to fix the engine fire. Each wave of a fan or splash of water caused more smoke to pour out of the ship. "Uh, hey, I know I'm new and everything, but if someone's following you, they'll be able to find you pretty quick with all that smoke."

"I know that!" Zuko shouted back.

"Okay, geez, calm down. Just attempting to help," Trinity stated, holding her hands in the air, looking away. All three went silent before Zuko spoke again.

"Well then, If Zhao wants to follow our trail of smoke, then that's exactly what I'll let him do." He turned to the crew still on the deck  
"Open the back hatch and lower a small boat," he yelled, marching back into the ship, Iroh followed after him.

Trinity stood there for a second, looking around to see no one there anymore. "Oh, I guess I should follow then." Before Trinity reached them, the pulse in her head began again, and it was getting stronger. She rubbed her head, "It's just the head injury from yesterday. I can't sense anything. I'm a normal pers…well, slightly normal person." She ran into Iroh and Zuko halfway down the hall, following them down to the bottom of the ship. A smaller ship was being lowered into the ocean with Zuko on it.

"Uncle, keep heading north. Zhao will follow the smoke trail while I use it as a cover." Iroh let out a grunt as he stroked his beard. "And you, you're coming with me," he pointed at Trinity.

"Why in the seven hell's would I go with you?"

"I know the Avatar is headed to temple, but I don't know where in the temple. That's where you will help," Zuko growled, walking back up the ramp.

"Oh my god, I have told you I cannot find this dude. What is wrong with you people?" Zuko marched behind her and began to tie her hand together.

"Are you seriously tying me up again? This is completely unnecessary! I'll go with you, okay."

"Maybe this is a bit excessive, Prince Zuko."

"She's our prisoner, Uncle, I'm not going to give her the chance to escape." Zuko began to push her down the ramp.

"Who said I'm trying to escape?" They both got onto the ship, and Zuko set sail for the island only a few miles away. The closer they sailed, the stronger the pulse in Trinity's got. Her skin started to pull again as she closed her eyes tight, shook her head.

"You can feel him, can't you?" Zuko grumbled, focusing on the controls for the boat.

"Why do you guys keep thinking that?"

"Uncle told me about your headache on the ship when we spotted the Avatar, and now it's happening again as we sail closer to him."

"I told your Uncle, it was the head injury from yesterday."

"You didn't get hit that hard!" He snapped.

"What? I was knocked unconscious. How is that not that hard?" Zuko refused to answer, only grumbling to himself. The ship went silent as they both glared in opposite directions.

"Hey, can you untie me?" she groaned, pulling at the ropes around her wrists. They were still a little sore from the last two times she was tied up, and these ropes weren't helping the mild irritation.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't trust you."

"Okay, I get that, but what could I possibly do to you? You have fire powers, and even if you didn't, it's not like I could beat you up. You're covered in armor."

"We're getting close." Zuko started messing with some controls on the small ship.

"Please?"

Zuko stayed silent.

"C'mon, man, this is unnecessary. I won't run. I don't even know where I would go if I did."

"Keep quiet!" Zuko yelled.

Trinity huffed and looked away. As soon as she stopped talking, she felt the pulse in her head. Her skin felt hot and cold at the same time. The closer they got to the island, the more heat barreled down on them. The increased temperature didn't help the throbbing headache that was getting worse. She shook her head again, trying to get it to go away. It was getting harder to breathe. Trinity had to concentrate on making sure air got into her lungs.

As he docked the ship on the shore. He pulled down the ramp, and both of them walked down. "You couldn't park this thing any closer?"

"We'll have to run. C'mon," Zuko said, taking off in a sprint.

"What hey, I can't run very well with my arms tied up. Get back here!" They both began to sprint to the building only for Trinity to stop halfway. With her head pounding, hands tied behind her back, and the ever-increasing heat making it hard to breathe, there was no way she could run any further.

"Hey, listen, man," she said, panting and out of breath. "I'm a runner, but this," she paused to try and catch her breath again. "This is too much. Can we take five or something?"

Zuko stopped and glared back at her, "We don't have time for this. Stop complaining and climb," he snapped, staring his trek back up the mountain.

Trinity followed behind. This guy was impossible. She'd die of heatstroke before they could get anywhere near this tower. Maybe if she could find a way to untie herself, but how? She thought for a second. Zuko tied her up because he didn't trust her, and the only thing he wants is this Avatar person. A light bulb went off in her head almost instantly. "Okay, so how about we make a deal?"

Zuko didn't stop trudging up the mountain but turned toward her, "What are you talking about?"

"Well, if, and I do mean if, I can track this guy and I help you catch him, you have to bring me back to the stone building."

"How do I know you won't just run away?" This time he did stop his march still looking over to her.

"You have my word I won't try to run or anything until you catch him, alright?"

Zuko didn't answer just grumbled under his breath, beginning to walk up again. Her eyes looked genuine enough, but there was still no way of knowing. To be honest, he didn't even know if this girl could help him find the Avatar or not. His uncle seemed to believe so. The only way to know was to bring her along until she proved otherwise.

"Well, is it a deal or not!?" Trinity yelled at him, stopping where she was ripping Zuko out of his thoughts. Usually, she could deal with hotheads like him, but it was burning, her head hurt, her body felt like it was ripping in two. This guy's attitude was the last thing she wanted to deal with.

"Fine, but only when I have the Avatar in my hands will I bring you back. Now keep moving."

The pulsing in her head was getting hard to ignore as they got closer to the building. The conversation was doing an excellent job of distracting her. She pulled against the ropes again, "And no more tying me up."

"What?"

"I don't wanna be tied up like a dog every time we go to look for this guy. I feel like that's reasonable."

"Fine, I won't tie you up anymore. Only if you're useful and if you don't run."

"And I don't want to stay in that cell either. If you got rooms on that stinky metal ship, I want one."

Zuko didn't answer again.

"Well, I guess I can't help if I can't get a room. I'll be way too uncomfortable sleeping on the cold metal floor..."

"Fine! You'll get what you want now would you shut up!"

She only nodded in response. Unfortunately, the silence caused her headache to come back only ten times worse. Her body almost felt like it was being pulled out of her skin. She tried counting the rocks below her feet, the clouds in the sky. She even tried counting how many beads of sweat that fell off of her face as they walked. Anything to take her mind off of her pounding head but to no avail. This was far worse than the headache on the ship. Something was wrong. Her vision started to flash white. As soon as they came to the front step of the temple, a pressure hit her like a rock. Falling to her knees, she found it hard to breathe. Her head felt like it was being crushed. It felt like her soul was being pulled from her body toward the top of the building. Zuko heard her hit the ground and turned quickly to her.

"What's wrong?" he asked, kneeling down on her level.

"U-up there. There's something up there," she gasped, looking toward the top of the temple. Zuko stood, immediately heading for the temple entrance, but stopped after a few steps. He looked back to see Trinity still on her knees, gasping for air. He growled out in frustration, turning around to untie her hands.

"Go back to the ship and wait there," he growled quickly, running inside. Trinity tried to brace herself with her arms, but they gave out, causing her head to hit the hot rock. The pressure coming from the top of the temple barreled down on her like a boulder. She couldn't move; she couldn't breathe, the world around her began to fade. Flashing images passed through her blinking eyes. An old man's voice echoed in her head as she lost consciousness.

Nathan parked his gray car at Trinity's school a little later than what he was supposed to. He got a bit sidetracked with visiting friends, completely forgetting he had to pick up his sister. Her class must have run later than usual, though, because she never called him at seven when it was done. Pulling out his phone, dialed Trinity's number, waiting for an answer. There was none. He tried a few more times to get the same result each time.

"Damn it, I keep telling her to pay attention to her phone," he grumbled to himself, exiting the car.

He straightened up his plaid button-up shirt and dusted off his blue jeans before walking up to the school building to find a young female teacher exiting through the front doors. "Uh, excuse me."

The young teacher jumped slightly, looking back at Nathan.

"Hello, sir, what can I do for you?" She was a bit frazzled straightening out her short hair, gripping her keys tight in her hands. It wasn't every day that a strange young man came up to her in the middle of the night right as she was leaving. Hopefully, this wasn't some crazy weirdo who had a thing for teachers.

"Do you know where the math tutoring class for seniors would be?" Nathan almost felt the need to put his hands up in submission. This woman looked like she was ready to attack at any wrong move.

Wolfe visibly relaxed, "Oh. Well, I guess it's my lucky day. That's my class. What can I help you with?"

"My sister, Trinity, is in your class. I'm here to pick her up, but she's not answering her phone. Is she still in the building?"

"Trinity never... Oh, you're her 'stick in the mud' brother she talks about?"

Nathan's face flattened. She was so dead after this. "Y-yeah, I'm the stick in the mud brother," he grumbled, rubbing the back of his head.

The teacher chuckled, "Well, she was supposed to meet me for a private lesson, but she never showed. I tried looking around, but I couldn't find her."

"Oh, she probably skipped out. She's really not a fan of the subject." Nathan imagined his sister was currently curled up in bed, snickering at his misfortune as he wasted his time.

"Yeah, I know all about her 'allergy to math' as she calls it, but she usually doesn't skip out on class." Wolfe was getting the small sinking feeling that Trinity's older brother wasn't a fan of his little sister. Maybe he just didn't understand her illness very well. Whenever she and Trinity spoke about her older brother, she never said much about him other than he was a bit of a bummer. Judging by his reactions, he thought the same in the opposite spectrum. "She really is a good kid," Wolfe added. She wanted to see how he would respond.

"Well, she is known for being unpredictable."

Wolfe raised an eyebrow. "Hmm, this might be a lot to ask, but can I give you my cell phone number? I'd like to know she's alright when you find her. If you're not comfortable with it, can you give it to your parents?"

"U-uh, sure, I can take it," Nathan sputtered, pulling his phone from his pocket, handing it to her. This was weird. Why would her teacher want to know about her whereabouts so bad? He had no doubt that she was at home.

"Please call me whether you find her or not. If I don't pick up just leave a message," Wolfe said as she entered her number into his phone.

Nathan nodded, "Yeah, will do. Thanks for the help." He glanced at his phone, seeing the name Stacy Wolfe with Trinity's teacher in parentheses. Giving a small wave, Nathan turned to leave for his car.

"And, young man," Wolfe called out to him.

Nathan looked up at the teacher, "Please go easy on your sister. Her life isn't easy, but she is trying.

He stared at the teacher for a second before nodding and turning entirely around to go to his car. As soon as he got in, he tried her number again to get no answer. "She is so dead," he mumbled to himself, pulling out of the parking lot.  
Pulling into the driveway of his parents' house, he hopped out of the car and into the home. He couldn't make too much noise because his father was asleep upstairs, but he wanted nothing more than to sneak into her room and scare her awake. Although she did deserve it after making him drive all the way out there for nothing that would have to wait until next time. He quietly walked down the hall to her room, the same one they had when they were kids.

The door creaked as he pushed it open to a dark room. "Trinity. Hey, wake up," he whispered into the room. When he got no response, he slowly crept up to the bed then slammed his hands down on the sheets letting out a hushed yell. He, once again, got no response.

"What the?" He leaned over and turned on the lamp, sitting on the end table next to the bed. There was no one else in the room. He took a quick glance around the room before walking back out.

"Trin? Trinity, you in the house?" he shouted, making no effort to keep his voice quiet. He did a quick run around the house while calling her phone and her name several more times to get no answer. Panic started to set in like a dagger to the heart as he ran out to the backyard. "Trinity!?" He yelled, running around the yard to see if she was there. His heart sped up when her teacher swords echoed in his head. Call her whether he finds her or not. What did that mean exactly? With no luck outside, Nathan ran back inside and upstairs to his father's room and banged on the door.

"Dad! Dad, wake up, it's an emergency." He continued to bang on the door until it opened with a creak.

"What? What is it," Victor groaned.

"Was Trinity home when you got here?"

Victor let out a yawn, "No, you were supposed to pick her up from tutoring class, remember?"

"I know I went over there. Trinity's teacher said that she never showed up."

"What?"

"I came back here thinking she just went home, and I can't find her anywhere."

Victor pushed past Nathan and made his way downstairs, "And she's not answering her phone?"

"No, I've called her like twenty times," Nathan answered, following down the stairs.

Victor marched around the house, turning on lights and calling Trinity's name over and over again.

"Dad, I've already done this. She's not here."

Victor stopped in the middle of the hall and let out a frustrated sigh. "She must have blacked out somewhere," he huffed, walking over to the home phone and dialing a number. After a few rings, Ella picked up the phone, "Vic, I really can't take personal calls at work. You know this."

"Trinity's missing," he interrupted.

"What!? What happened!?"

"I'll give you the story later, but Nathan and I are going to the school to search the grounds. Is there any way you can come home?"

"I-I can ask, but you know how my boss is. Even in emergencies, he's kind of iffy."

"Listen, don't panic, okay. If you can get off work, that would be great; if not, then we'll meet up when you get off, alright."

"Yeah, that will work." He could tell her voice was shaking on the other end. It was always a double-edged sword by calling his wife about problems. She tended to panic when he told her things but yell at him if he didn't. This particular issue was severe enough to call her.

"Okay, I'll see you in a few hours, and don't worry, this isn't the first time this has happened. We'll find her just like last time." Victor kept his voice calm, trying to ease Ella's worries.

"Yeah, your right, I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, hon." Victor hung up the phone and flew past Nathan to go back upstairs.

"Let me throw something on, and we can leave." Nathan stood in the living room in shock. How could this happen? How did this go from scare his sister awake to Trinity is missing? Did his father say this has happened before? Why didn't he know about this? Victor's heavy footsteps down the stairs stopped the questions flying through his head.

"Let's go."

Within minutes the two men were speeding toward the school. Though the questions started back up in Nathan's head one minute after the car started, one continued to circulate. "So, this has happened before, her going missing like this?"

Victor sighed, "Yeah, last year. We went to a fair, and she went off to buy something; she didn't come back. Turns out, she blacked out in a closed part of the park where no one could see her."

Nathan didn't respond immediately. The thought of his sister being lost on a dirty fairground slightly enraged him. "And you guys never told me this because…"

"Because we know how much your sister's illness upsets you and you had just left for college. The last thing we wanted to do was burden you with all that."

Nathan stayed quiet then looked out the window. He was never one for questioning why people did things unless they affected him directly. This revelation, though, he struggled not to yell at his father. How could they not tell him about this? He had never imagined that his sister would get so bad to the point of disappearance.

"I'm sorry for not telling you," Victor added after a moment of silence. Nathan stayed quiet, still looking out the window. He tried to keep his breathing smooth. This was maddening. No wonder her teacher was so worried.

The two men pulled into the school driveway and climbed out of the car. "There are flashlights in the trunk. You go look around the building. I'll see if I can find a janitor or something to get inside. I have my phone if you find her."

Nathan nodded, grabbed a flashlight, and set on his way. He marched around the open schoolyard calling Trinity's name every few minutes in hopes that he might hear a response. After ten minutes of searching the front and the back of the school, Nathan came back around to see if his father had gone back to the car.

"He must have been able to get inside," he mumbled to himself, not seeing his father anywhere. Nathan stood by the car for a minute, not knowing what to do. Should he call his dad, maybe the police, or should he just stay at the car and wait.

Waiting seemed like the best option at the time. If Trinity wasn't outside, then she must be inside. Nathan leaned against the car with a sigh. He pulled out his phone. Maybe calling the police was the best option. A search party would do better in the dark than just him and his father. He slowly started to type in the numbers when a flash the woods. Nathan froze then shined the flashlight in the direction to see if anyone was there but saw nothing. Cautiously, he put the light back down and tried to go back to his phone, but then he saw it again. He slowly made his way over to the thicket of trees, shining the flashlight in front of him. The purple flicker of light grew as approached the woods. Nathan stepped into the woods following the glow. It was calling him as he walked almost in a daze. He followed the light until he found a clearing in the woods where it was coming from. Right in the dead center, his sister laid there still as stone, and right above her was the purple lady. She stood there in bright light, staring right at him. Nathan didn't know what to do. He hadn't seen the woman since he was a kid, and now there she was right in front of him. Was she real or his stressed mind playing tricks on him? What should he do? Should he charge for his sister? Should he call his father? Should he question her? Was this even real? All these thoughts ran through his head, but before he could do anything, she nodded at him and disappeared. Nathan stood, mouth agape for a minute, then made a dash for his sister.

He fell to the ground, scooping his limp sister into his arms, "Trinity? Hey, wake up. C'mon." She felt so cold. Laying her down on the ground, Nathan pressed his ear to her chest. A small amount of panic resided when he heard the slight sound of a heartbeat and air moving through her lungs. He readjusted her in his arms so he could pull out his phone. Victor answered, "Did you find her?"

"Yeah, I found her in the woods. She's not waking up."

"Shit. I'll call an ambulance. Can you get her to the car?"

"Y-yeah, I can carry her back." Nathan put his phone away, lifting his sister in her arms. He carried her to the car and set her into the passenger seat. Letting out a large puff of air, he looked at his sister. She was practically dead in the chair with leaves in her hair, mud smeared across the left side of her face and clothes. Nathan started to pick the leaves out of her hair.

"What happened to you?" He said to himself. After the leaves were out, he began to wipe the dirt away with his hand. "I wish I could help," he said softly. God, she was freezing. Nathan climbed in the seat with Trinity raping his arms around her. Her head rolled on to his shoulder like a lifeless doll placing her neck in an unnatural position. He adjusted her again, hoping to ease any strain when he heard his father trotting up behind him.

"Hey, how is she?" Victor panted, looking into the car.

"She's just..." Nathan let out another huff of air, rubbing his face with his hands. "She's just lying there, I mean...I don't know." He gently moved Trinity's body, so she was in the seat again and stepped to the side so his father could take a look at her.

He ran his hands through the short hair on his head, feeling weak and useless. It had been a long time since he'd seen his sister like this. Was this the point they were at? Finding her in the middle of the woods passed out. Worst of all, he felt like it was all his fault. If he had left when he was supposed to, she might not have been in this situation. Nathan turned back to the car he heard sirens in the background. Red and white lights filled the area as EMT's loaded up his sister and carted her off to the nearest hospital, Nathan just watched.

Victor trotted over to him, "Hey, your mom was able to take off work, we'll meet her at the hospital." The older man placed a hand on his son's shoulder, "You okay, bud?" Nathan didn't look at him, he just nodded and walked to the car.

Trinity’s eyes shot open what seemed like seconds after losing conciseness. All the pain she was feeling was gone, but so was everything around her. A deep fog covered the terrain as well as the air she breathed. As she stood, the ground began to clear. A pointed mountain range started to make itself apparent to her surroundings. Just before she was about to call out for help, she heard a voice in the distance. Slowly Trinity walked toward the sound. They became more evident as she got closer. An old man and a kid, maybe? As she came closer to a clearing in the fog, she could see them. A boy in yellow and orange was speaking to an old man in deep red robes. She could only make out a small portion of their conversation.

“What if I have questions? How will I talk to you?” The boy seemed desperate for information.

“I am a part of you. When you need to talk to me again, you will find a way. A great danger awaits you at the temple. We can help you face the threat, but only if you are ready.”

“We?”

“An ancient friend has found us. She will help.” The man turned to her, looking directly into her hiding place. Trinity ducked, feeling her heart skip a beat. How did he know she was there? The boy turned to face her as well, looking equally confused.

“Of course,” Trinity said unwillingly. She immediately put her hands to her mouth. That wasn’t her. The voice that came out was different and unfamiliar. Her body began to feel weird again, like her skin was being pulled from her body. A purple light surrounded her as the old man spoke again.

“Are you ready, Aang.”

The boy stared at her for a few moments longer before turning back to the old man, “I'm ready.”

The fog around them swirled and thicken. Once Trinity could no longer see her own hands, her vision changed to a door opening with waves of fire heading directly toward her.

Zuko struggled against the chains around his body. This was not how this was supposed to go. How could he allow Zhao to catch him? Now his prize was about to be captured by his enemy, which made it worse. The giant doors began to open with a groan and a hiss. A blinding purple and blue light started to spill from the cracks. Zuko struggled again, turning away from the bright beams.

"Ready. Fire," Zhao ordered to his men!

He felt his heart sink when Zhao's men fired into the doorway. He had failed. Suddenly the fire sucked in, forming into a large ball. Zuko stopped struggling mouth agape. The boy he knew did not emerge from the door but Avatar Roku himself. The man glowed in blue and purple light, grabbing the fire and shooting it back at them. Heat flew at his face creating a familiar feeling of burning against his skin. The chains around his body loosed, turning to ash. Zuko wasted no time, breaking through the weak chains and running out of the building.

Though he was unable to capture the Avatar, getting caught by Zhao could not happen. Being killed by Avatar Roku wasn't on the agenda, either. He would lose all chances of getting honor back, getting his home again. He made his way through the entrance door only to find something that stopped him dead in his tracks. The girl, whom he couldn't remember the name of, was still lying on the ground, but she was glowing purple. He took a step closer to find there where swirly lines and different character markings all over her body that was emitting the purple glow. A loud boom from the building caused Zuko to snap back into action. He quickly scooped up the girl, running to the small ship. After the boat was on the waters, he turned to the limp girl. He first made sure she was still alive, listening for breath sounds and checking her pulse. After feeling a pulse, he then started to inspect the strange symbols littered all over her body.

The symbols were grouped in a way that almost looked like a giant tattoo similar to the Avatars. It started at her forehead down her head, branched out at the base of both ears, and created swirls on her cheeks. Going down the back, it branched again at her shoulder blades swirled her arms and to her fingertips. The stripes swirled down her legs to her toes as well. The characters inside the tattoo, Zuko couldn't read. They were ancient, he could make out a few words: fire, water, earth, air, and spirit.

He looked to see his ship close by, the front already open for him to dock, Iroh standing right at the opening. As his crew latched the small boat to the larger one pulling it in while Zuko scooped up Trinity and climbed off the vessel. "Get me the medic!" Zuko yelled at a random crew member. Iroh ran up to both of them. "What happened? I saw the temple fall."

"Zhao caught up with me somehow. He tried to turn me in, but the Avatar destroyed the temple allowing me to escape."

"I'm glad you are not hurt," Iroh said with a smile. "Though the same does not seem to be true with our new member here. What happened to her?"

"I don't know." Zuko set her down on the floor, her back against the wall. "She had some sort of attack right outside the doors of the temple. I told her to go back to the ship and wait for me there, but when I came out, she was passed out glowing like this."

"Hmm," Iroh knelt down, looking at the characters glowing on her body.

"What do they mean, Uncle?"

"These characters are ancient. It would take an expert to decipher what it means, though I do recognize some of them."

"Fire, water, earth, air, and spirit," Zuko said.

"Correct, it repeats quite a few times."

"Do you think it's connected to the Avatar?"

"That is hard to say. It very well could be, but I think it might be more complicated than that."

They both went silent, staring at Trinity. Slowly the glowing tattoo began to disappear, and she started to stir awake. She fluttered her eyes open to find the two men staring at her with wide eyes.

"Gah! What? What is it!?" She screamed, staring back with one eyebrow raised. Iroh placed a warm smile on his face while Zuko did the opposite, standing up.

"You're awake. How are you doing?"

"Fine, mostly." She turned her head side to side, looking around, "Though I don't remember how I got here."

"You don't remember what happened at the temple?" Zuko questioned.

Trinity shook her head, "Nope, I remember us walking up that huge hill, and then it felt like someone put a wooden stake through my head for like a split second, and now I'm here."

Iroh stroked his beard, "Hmm. That is very odd."

"Don't worry about it. It was probably just another blackout."

"Another? What does that mean?" Zuko spat.

"I've had frequent blackouts since I was like five. Like I said, no big deal. By the way, did you catch your guy?"

"No," Zuko growled out and started to walk away. "I'm going to my room, the medic should be here shortly. Uncle, get the crew to start heading north as soon as possible, then meet me in my room," he demanded, stalking off.

"Aw man, I was hoping he would get the dude," Trinity pouted.

"So, you are okay with helping Prince Zuko find the Avatar?"

"Well, we sort of made a deal. Zuko catches his guy, I go back home. It seemed easy enough at the time. Of course, my head was also exploding at the same time, so maybe not the best idea."

"General Iroh!" They both looked up to see a young skinny man with pale skin in red cloth clothing and a buzzed haircut. "Ah, Tao, over here." The thin man trotted over to the two of them.

"It's nice to see you, General," he bowed to him, "Is this the patient?" he asked, looking at Trinity.

"Yes, she was unresponsive a few minutes ago."

"I see." Tao knelt down to her level and placing the back of his hand on her forehead.

"Well, this is new. I usually get old farts for doctors." Trinity pushed off the wall sitting her back up straight. The world might be different, but she imagined the doctors were the same.  
Tao chuckled. "My father was a doctor, and I liked the idea of helping people. Excuse me for a second." He placed a hand on her chest and back and counted her heartbeat and respiration rate.

"That's what all doctors say. Admit it; you did it for the money, didn't you?"

He laughed again, "The pay is nice too, I'll admit. Now I'm going light a fire next to your face to check your eye dilation so it might be a bit warm." He lit a fire in his palm and held it close to each side of her face. "I've never seen anyone with two different colored eyes before. It's quite interesting."

"Believe me, they're more trouble than they're worth." It took everything in her no to roll her eyes. Every new doctor thought they were interesting. Apparently, grey wasn't a typical color for heterochromia.

He smiled at her then stood up, "General, I believe that she is in full health. Though I do recommend rest for a few days just as a precaution."

"Thank you, Tao."

"I'll be in my quarters if you need me." He bowed at Iroh then did the same at Trinity, giving her another smile and walked off.

"He's rather good looking, isn't he?"

Trinity's face scrunched into a scowl, "What? No! You weird old man," she said, standing from the floor and walking away. Iroh watched as she turned the corner only to pop her head out, "I don't know where I'm going," she mumbled, Iroh chucked and followed after her.

Setting the strange girl into a new room was easy enough. She didn't have any belongings with her, not even some extra clothes. Iroh stroked his beard as he made his way to his nephew's room. Maybe they should stop at a market to get her some new clothes. She also didn't have anything to entertain herself, either. The past few days have been extremely eventful, so she should be pretty tired, but that won't last. Iroh knocked on Zuko's door while wondering if Trinity would be interested in Pai Sho. Zuko opened the door with the same amount of vigor he did with everything. "You wanted to see me?"

"I wanted to tell you what happened on the island." Zuko walked back into his room, sitting on his bed.

"I was wondering how the tower fell. It seemed to me that the volcano erupted."

"Avatar Roku destroyed the tower."

Iroh's eyes widened. How was that possible? Roku died years ago. Now that he thought about it, the Avatar was making a mad dash to the island. Was that the reason? To somehow connect with Avatar Roku.

"That's not the only thing," Zuko continued when his uncle didn't respond. "There was a really bright light emitting from his body. It was blinding, the color burned into my eyes."

Iroh once again didn't respond, though he could tell his nephew was eluding to something.

"The light was purple, Uncle. The same color that the girl was glowing when I found her."

Zheng sat cross-legged on the ground of the crescent island, tapping her finger against the dirt while Shen paced behind her. "Would you stop pacing! What's done is done," Zheng grumbled.

"I just can't believe you lost the ship. How in the hell do you lose a ship!?" Shen yelled, throwing his arms up in the air.

"There was a lot of smoke. Anyone could have missed it," Zheng shrugged.

"I can't believe this. It's going to take days for us to catch up with her. And you know how long it will take for me to bend us all the way back to the Earth Kingdom!?"

"We'd be there sooner if you'd stop griping."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Hey c'mon, let's just get a raft and get over there. Yelling won't solve anything," Zheng sighed, getting up.

"Says the person with the shortest temper in the history of short tempers," Shen growled.

"Your one to talk!" Zheng snapped back.

They were both mask to mask growling at each other until the loud explosion of the volcano behind them snapped them out of it. Zheng turned away from Shen. "Damn, I forgot the volcano was erupting," she laughed, scratching the back of her head.

Shen let out a frustrated sigh, "Why do I put you in charge of anything. You'd forget a platypus bear was gnawing on your leg if you turned away from it."

"Would not." Zheng walked over to a slow flow of lava a few feet away. "Here's a good patch." She stuck her fist out, up and over, causing the lava to follow her movements into the water. The lava's impact caused an influx of steam to fly in the air. After the steam cleared, an awkward shaped black rock remained for them to get on.

"Remember, it'll sink as soon as we get on so you'll have to bend it up and out," Zheng said.

"Yeah, yeah. I got it. You ready?"

Zheng nodded.

"One, two, three!"

On three, both of them jumped onto the rock slab, causing it to sink just slightly. Shen used his water bending to hold the raft up and used the rest of the force to push them away from the island and out into the night sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! Alright, I got this out before the new year, which was my goal (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)ﻭ. Happy holidays and new year if you're reading this at the end of 2019. I'll be back next year, (She said hopefully (｡ŏ﹏ŏ)) though updates are gonna slow down quite a bit. Next year I'm going to be focusing on my art a lot more, which means less writing. Hopefully, I can still do this in my spare time because I really do enjoy it. Thanks for reading ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ


	7. The Cyclone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo! How's it going. Welcome back :)

Trinity was feeling off, since the blackout at the temple. Even though she'd brushed it off as 'another blackout,' this particular one was bothering her. Every time she closed her eyes, static-like flashes of the old man and the boy passed by. Then the pain came. It wasn’t real, the discomfort she felt. It came from the memory, the flashes. It made her nauseous. What she was having a hard time with was why. The feeling she was having on the ship versus what happened on that island was so different. The pulse from the ship wasn’t painful. It worsened the headache that she already had, sure, but it was just a weird feeling. That island made her body almost rip in two. What was the cause? The old man flashed into her mind again. He seemed to understand what was going on, knowing where she was despite being hidden. If she could figure out who he was, then maybe she could get a few more answers. Hell, even questioning the boy would work out. The problem was how she would find them. Were they even real? Maybe they were more spirits that only she could see. Trinity flopped back down on her bed, growling in frustration. 

“How can I find two people that might not even exist?” 

She stayed there for a moment before a thought smacked her right in the face. “Iroh! He can help me.” Iroh could see spirits just like she could. Maybe if she described what the two of them looked like, he would know who they were. At the very least, perhaps he had heard of them. Trinity hopped out of the room in search of the old man. Unfortunately, navigating through the ship was damn near impossible. Nothing but red fire, dark silver metal, and hot steam that all looked the exact same. Iroh showed her around the ship once, but there was no way she could remember after being shown the one time. Thankfully, Trinity found a fail-safe. She noticed that all the pipes that ran along the ceiling went in the same direction. The steam and smoke that leaked from the pipes all led to an enormous silo that emptied outside. It was unorthodox, but she was able to follow the pipes until she reached the silo. There was a latter she could climb down to the deck, no problem.  
Hopefully, Iroh was there. She hadn’t had to interact with the other crew members yet, but they always seemed so busy. Not to mention Zuko’s constant yelling, they seemed frustrated enough. Trinity crossed the middle of the ship to make her way toward the bow. She took her time watching as the ocean zoomed past. The ocean breeze was something she had always heard about but never truly experienced. Though it was chilly and smelled of salt, it was a gentle, relaxing cold. Not enough to freeze you but enough to wake up in the morning. Making it to the front of the ship, she took in a deep breath. The past few days after the temple falling event had been uneventful. This was honestly the first time she had come out of her room in search of something to do. Trinity didn't realize that she hadn’t slept close to twenty-four hours. She had been asleep for almost two days. Any time she did come out, Iroh had wanted to do something. He showed her around the ship or showed her where the kitchens were. Today hopefully, would be another uneventful day so she could focus on getting some answers. Trinity stopped on the deck only to see a fireball hurtling straight for her head. With a scream, she ducked as the fire zipped past, singeing the metal behind her. She uncovered her head to see Zuko and another man aggressively throwing flames at each other. 

“Hey! Watch where you throw those things!” 

Her shout distracted the other man causing him to get pelted with fire by Zuko. The soldier fell over, causing Zuko to growl in frustration. He turned to Trinity with a scowl, “What are you doing out here?” 

“Trying not to die by fire. What are you doing?” Trinity droned with a glare. 

“None of your business. Go back to your room!” The prince snapped, turning around to leave. 

“Wasn’t aware that me being confined to my room was apart of our deal,” Trinity grumbled. 

Zuko turned on his heel to face her again. “I agreed to not tieing you up. That does not mean you can just waltz around my ship.”

Trinity opened her mouth, then closed it. “Your right, you didn’t say that.” Zuko looked almost immediately triumphant, turning back around with a huff. “But you also didn’t not say I couldn’t walk around, so I don’t think I’m breaking any rules.” Trinity could almost see the anger rising from his feet to his head. Just as he turned back around about to explode, Trinity spoke up again with a chuckle, “Where’s your uncle?” 

Zuko stopped and glared, “That is also none of your business.” He turned back around, walking toward his opponent, “Go back to your room and don’t come out unless someone gets you.” Trinity’s shoulders slumped. This was definitely throwing a wrench in her plans. He just needed to answer her question, it wasn’t hard. 

“Aw c'mon, Zuko. Why do you want to make things difficult? Just tell me where he is. Then I’ll leave you alone. Promise."

Zuko stopped walking, clenching his fists, "You will refer to me as Prince Zuko,” he growled out.

"What does that even...wait, why would I call you that?” 

"I am your superior!" He yelled, turning around, marching back to her. 

Trinity cocked an eyebrow, "Superior in what way? As far as I know, I've got nothing to do with your people. In fact, I’d go as far as saying I barely know who any of you people are."

Zuko stopped in front of her, arms at his side, and fists smoking. Trinity put her hands up, trying to calm him down, "Hey, hey, hey, you're superior at some things like." She glanced down at his smoking fists, "Catching yourself on fire?" 

His glare intensified as his fists shot open, fire coming shooting out at his sides. "Ah! See look. I can't do that," Trinity squeaked with a smile. Before Zuko could even release a growl, the sound of the large metal doors caused him to look up. Iroh looking quite relaxed sauntered up to the both of them. "Ah, I see you both are well awake this morning." 

Trinity looked away from the glaring boy turning to Iroh. "Oh, hey. I was searching for you." Zuko crossed his arms, turning away from both of them. 

“Well, I just finished my morning tea. Good morning Prince Zuko." The teen growled, stomping back to the man he was dueling.

“Watch out Iroh, he’s not a morning person.”

Iroh laughed, "We best leave them to their exercises. Come, we can go up to the control room." Trinity nodded, following behind. As they walked, she tapped her temple with her finger. What did she need to ask again? The small interaction with the living fireball made her kind of forget. Something was bothering her. Shooting pain through her head reminded her immediately. She grimaced as they made through the doors, the various crew members immediately stopped what they were doing, bowed, and said their greetings to Iroh. 

"Hey, Iroh?" There was no response. Her voice was lost under the soldiers while he greeted everyone.

Grabbing the same table he used a few days ago, but this time setting a checkered round board. Trinity observed as he set out chips with different symbols on each one. Once the board was set up, Iroh sat down with a sigh. “Now,” he looked around the room from crew member to crew member. “Who wants a game?” Trinity looked back and forth between all the men. They looked terrified, some even backed into a wall. 

“Uh...I’ll play,” Trinity spoke up from all the members. She was curious, and her question could wait a little while longer. Everyone looked at her, some even gasped. She started to get a bit concerned, “I mean, I don’t really know what it is your playing, but I love games.” 

“Do you not have Pai Sho where you are from?” Iroh asked a grin. 

Trinity shrugged, “If we do, I’ve never heard of it.” She didn’t get to play games very often, even when she was a kid. Other kids didn’t want to play with her because she freaked them out. The few that did want to play, she couldn’t focus on the purple woman showing up and trying to touch her. 

“Well, this is the perfect opportunity to learn. Come, sit.” Iroh patted the spot next to him, “Watch this round, and I will explain.” Trinity sat next to him, watching the board. Iroh looked through the crew members before pointing at one. “Lu, Duan, come join me for a game.” Both jumped, turning to all the other members who all turned around to do their daily tasks. They sighed, slumping over to different sides of the table sitting down. They pulled out small sacks dumping out a bunch of tile pieces. Iroh, on the other hand, had a decretive box with all the tiles neatly placed in rows. Trinity’s eyes widened at the number of pieces each person had. 

“How many pieces are there?” 

“Each player has fifty-four tiles.” Iroh placed one tile down on the board, then Lu did the same. Trinity looked over at Duan, who was nodding at Lu. 

“Why doesn’t he place a piece?” 

Iroh chuckled again, “They are both playing against me.” 

Trinity raised her eyebrows. No wonder the crew members looked so scared when he offered to play. Iroh must have been the best on the ship. Trinity found herself grinning just a bit. She couldn’t wait to learn how to play. Iroh and Lu began to place more tiles in different spaces, “The object of the game is to achieve more harmonies before your opponent,” Iroh explained. 

Trinity nodded, “What are harmonies?” 

Iroh slid a piece to a different square next to another tile then added one. “When you aline two pieces together, that creates harmony, but only certain tiles will create a pair.” Lu and Duan whispered to each other before Lu moved another piece while Duan adding one. Trinity watched as the players took their turns one after another. There was obviously more to the game than Iroh described. At times, he would take some of Lu and Duan’s pieces off the board. She’d have to ask him later, right now she was watching. Trinity observed back and forth, move after move until Iroh suddenly froze. He patted his shirt, then his pants looking down at the ground, searching for something. 

“What’s wrong?” Trinity asked, looking under the table along with him.

“My white lotus tile. I must have miss placed it.” 

“I guess that’s important,” she continued to look around. Maybe Iroh dropped it on the way in?

“My entire strategy is based around the white lotus tile. If I don’t have it, I won't be able to complete this game.” Despite missing his piece, Iroh continued to play, sliding another tile across the board. He leaned over the board, scratching his beard. “Hmm, no, this won’t do. Captain!” The captain of the ship turned, bowing to his superior, “Sir?” 

“Take us to the nearest market. I must buy a new tile as soon as possible.” 

The captain hesitated, “U-uh, sir. Are you sure that’s a good idea? We’re on course for the North Pole.” 

“It must be done. We can get Trinity some new clothes as well.” Trinity looked down at her clothes. The poor school uniform was torn in various places and covered in faded dirt. She had asked about a different set of clothes, but there was a severe lack of woman’s clothing on this ship. The few women on board the vessel wore sizes way too big. It had been washed a few times, so at least it didn’t stink. The captain scratched the back of his head, looking back and forth. Just like when Iroh suggested the Pai Sho match, the other members distracted themselves. “G-general, please.” 

“It will only take a small amount of time. I’m sure things will be fine.” Iroh moved another piece on the board. The captain sighed, turning to the wheel of the ship. 

“Is he okay? He seemed almost scared?” 

Lu moved another piece causing Iroh's eyes to widen. “Ah, see here, Trinity, if you place this jasmine tile at the home port and move three spaces.” He performed the action as he described, “It causes a disharmony.” Iroh took the piece off the board, tossing it into a pile. Trinity nodded, completely forgetting about the captain's dismay. So it was certain pieces that could remove others. She’d have to learn each tile and what they did. “Okay, but what does it harmonize with?”

Before Iroh could explain, a stomping could be heard, making it’s way down the hall outside. Trinity turned to find the door slamming open with Zuko marching in fists clenched. “What is the meaning of this mutiny? No one told you to change course!”   
“Oh, that’s why he was so scared,” Trinity chimed in. Unfortunately, that was a mistake. Zuko immediately turned to her, “You! Just because we struck deal does not give you any rights to my ship!”

“Uh...”

“I command this ship! I say when we change course!”

“I didn’t...” 

“I told you to go back to your room, what are you doing up here!?”

“What are you...”

“Actually, I did it. I assure you, it is a matter of utmost importance, Prince Zuko,” Iroh chimed in before Zuko could yell again. 

“Does it something to do with the Avatar?” His demeanor changed instantly as he looked hopefully at his uncle.

“Even more urgent. It seems, I-,” Iroh stopped to rub his forehead. “I have lost my lotus tile.” Despite his slightly distressed disposition, he continued to play the game on the board. 

“Lotus tile?” Trinity almost laughed at the perplexed facial expression on Zuko’s face. She could see him trying to compute the reasoning behind his uncle's actions.

“You've changed our course for a stupid lotus tile?” The calculation failed, causing Trinity to chuff out a laugh. He instantly shot a glare over to her. “What are you laughing at?” 

Trinity put her hands up, “Nothing, nothing. I can just see why he needs the piece. Your uncle’s strategy really needs it.” She had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. Iroh seemed to buy her bluff. 

“Ah, you see! Trinity can see the value of the lotus piece. Just give me ten minutes to check the merchants at this port. Hopefully, they will have the lotus tile in stock, and I can get on with my life.” 

Zuko growled fire and smoke up at the ceiling while Iroh smiles. “I'm lucky to have such an understanding, nephew.” 

He instantly stopped, shooting a glare to his uncle, “Five minutes, Uncle, then we’re leaving. We don’t have time for this. And you,” he directed his attention to Trinity. “Come with me.” 

“Ah, jeez, am I in trouble?” 

“Hurry up,” he yelled, marching out of the room. Trinity turned to Iroh, “Should I be scared?" 

“Only if your afraid of bad tempers and smoke,” Iroh coughed, waving a fan in his face. 

Trinity got up from her seat, stepping outside. Zuko stood next to the doorway with his arms crossed. He still looked just as infuriated as he did thirty seconds ago.

“Can you sense the Avatar or not because I am very tempted to leave you at this market.”

“That seems a bit cruel, especially since today is the first time I’ve talked to you in a few days," she grumbled, looking off to the side.

“Answer me,” he growled.

“I don’t know, dude,” Trinity ran her fingers through her hair. It was frustrating being expected to do something she didn’t even know was possible. The pulse feeling was something, but was that this Avatar guy? She honestly didn’t know. “I admit I felt something, but I don’t know if it was him or some other spirit thing. Maybe if you can go to a place with less boiling towers.”

Zuko growled. He didn’t like that answer or this girl staying on his ship. She was obviously a distraction to his uncle. This was so infuriating. If she could sense the Avatar, then she was a great asset. He couldn’t even imagine if Zhao got his hands on her. He’d be doomed. On the other hand, this girl’s presence was getting on his last available nerve, and this would be a complete waste of time if she couldn’t. Unfortunately, the pros outweighed the cons, his nerves be damned. 

“Fine. I’ll let you stay for now.” 

Trinity sighed through her nose, quirking an eyebrow, “Thanks, I guess.” 

A huff was his only response as he started to stomp away. Obviously, Zuko didn’t want her on the ship, and quite frankly, she didn’t want to be here either. Iroh was nice, but she didn’t know anyone else at all. The only other person she knew was a walking billowing fireball of anger. Going home was still the top priority. Maybe her being useless was better than she thought. 

“You know I could be completely useless, and you could drop me off at the temple. It would get me out of your hair really quick.” 

Zuko stopped, “If your completely useless, I will drop you where ever I please. Don't have enough hair to spare, to begin with." He walked away, grumbling the last sentence.

Trinity stared as he let then let out a chuff. Was that a joke? It was a horrible one if it was. Maybe it wasn’t a joke, and he was just bad at conversation. She chuffed again. The thought of it not being a joke made it a bit funnier. She stood in the hall by herself for a minute. What was she doing out here again? Wasn’t she supposed to ask about something? Looking into the room, Trinity saw Iroh still playing the game. That’s what she was doing though there was a nagging feeling that she forgot something. 

Sailing to the market place caused quite a bit of chaos on the ship. The captain called several different people into the room, listing off what was needed for the vessel. Mobs of soldiers running in and out handing list after list to the captain. He would then look down the paper working out what was actually needed versus what wasn’t. Anything ridiculous written down was thoroughly berated for doing so. It was just a lot of running and yelling. Trinity stayed next to Iroh. Everyone seemed to completely ignore him moving around like he wasn’t there. Arrival to the market place caused a whole other slew of chaotic behavior. Once the ship was docked, it was a stampede of people running out, looking for random stuff. Some soldiers ran off to feel the solid non-swaying ground under their feet. After the initial mob passed by, Iroh and Trinity walked to the opening. The stop made her head swim just a bit. Her legs felt as if it was still moving while her upper body was not. Trinity rubbed her temples to get the small headache to go away.

“All this just for a lotus piece?” Trinity questioned as another soldier pushed past her. 

Iroh stroked his beard, “Yes, well, I suppose it’s been quite a while since we stopped at a market.” 

“That’s because we didn’t need to come here.” Both Iroh and Trinity looked back to see Zuko standing behind them with his arms crossed.

“I assure you that it will not take long,” Iroh started down the ramp. “Just need my lotus piece and some new clothes for Trinity.” As soon as her name was mentioned, she lept over to follow Iroh. It only took about three quick steps before the explosion that was Zuko erupted. Trinity covered her ears at the onslaught of questions, screaming, and fire. 

“Maybe next time we should skip out on mentioning the additional supplies lest we all get caught on fire.” 

Iroh chuckled,” Maybe your right.”

The search through the market was futile, to say the least. Not only did the three not find anything, they were actually looking for, but Iroh made a point to look at and buy anything that looked interesting. An entire team had to be called just to bring Iroh’s things onto the ship. Though Trinity was interested at first soon enough, it just reminded her of when her father got lost in an antique store. It didn't help that her head wasn't getting any better. It had switched from being an ordinary headache to a weird nagging feeling. Honestly, it was more annoying than painful, making it hard to focus. She lagged behind Iroh, where Zuko stomped behind, fuming. 

“You know I would have completely supported you if you told me he was like this at stores,” she droned with her shoulders slouched. 

“I said before we docked, this was a waste of time,” he grumbled back.

“True, but you failed to specify why.” 

“Well, maybe you’ll listen next time.”

“Hey, it’s not like listening to you would have changed this outcome. I didn’t tell him to come here.” 

"You encouraged it." 

"Fair, but you agreed to it." 

Zuko only grumbled in response as the three made their way back to the ship. “I’ve checked all the shops on this pier. Not a lotus tile in the entire market place.” Despite his woes, the old man didn’t seem to upset. 

“It’s good to know this trip was a complete waste of time for everyone,” Zuko yelled in his uncle's ear. 

Trinity slumped,” Afraid I’m going to have to agree with him, Iroh. We couldn’t even find something as basic as clothes.” 

“Quite the contrary. I always say the only thing better than finding something you were looking for, is finding something you weren’t looking for at a great bargain!”

Both Trinity and Zuko looked over to the mob of soldiers carrying various objects, one of being a peculiar looking horn.

“You bought a tsungi horn?”

“For music night on the ship. Now, if we only had some woodwinds.”

“You guys have a music night?” Trinity quirked an eyebrow.

“No.”

“Absolutely!”

Both men responded at the same time. The group began to walk down the docks toward all the ships. “Maybe we can make up for our lack of woodwinds with a beautiful female singing voice, hmm,” Iroh wiggled a brow toward Trinity. 

“Iroh, the world isn’t ready for the screeching howler monkey, that is my voice.”

“I’m sure it’s not....oh that looks promising!”

“Uncle, no! No more shops.”

Iroh had already taken off toward the large wooden ship in front of them. Trinity groaned as Iroh ran off. She rubbed her temples, slightly wandering in a random direction. She just wanted to lay down at this point. Zuko stopped her from going too far, grabbing her wrist. 

“Hey, no running off or deals off.”

“I’m not running off, just have a weird headache thing.” 

Zuko stared at her for a second before putting on a serious look. “How long have you had this headache for?” 

“I think since we docked. I’ve never been on a ship for so long. Figured it was because of the solid ground.”

He let go of her wrist, marching toward the boat Iroh disappeared in. “C’mon, we’re getting Uncle. This trip might not have been a waste of time, after all.”

Trinity followed Zuko slowly to the ship. So her headache could be a sign this Avatar person was around. She considered for a second that it was the cause of her head fog, but it felt so different than before. So much less painful. Then it hit again all at once; the boy, the old man, nausea. Trinity placed her hand over her mouth as the same searing pain struck her temple, causing her stomach to lurch. She stopped at the opening of the ship sitting at the base. Zuko would probably drag Iroh out eventually. They wouldn’t mind if she sat here. Trinity didn’t know how long she sat until she felt a foot kick at her knee. Her head snapped up, “Hey, you didn’t have to kick me. I’ll...” She stopped when she saw I wasn’t Zuko she was talking to but a seedy-looking skinny man. 

“What’s pretty looking thing like you doing near our little ship, hmm?”

Trinity stood immediately, which caused her head to swim just a bit. “My uh. The people I’m with are on the ship. I was just waiting for them.” She started to back her way up the ramp.

“Seems to me that your lost, and the people I’m with can help with that.” The man grinned, following her up the ramp. 

"That's okay, I'm really annoying to have to help anyway. I wouldn't be worth the trouble," Trinity chuckled, trying not to trip as she backed up. 

"If you don't want help, then I wonder how much you would be worth on the black market. Those eyes of yours would certainly fetch a high price." 

Her eyes widened as she continued to back up as the man followed. If he caught her, Zuko and Iroh would help her, right? She was an asset to them, right? Getting captured again after only a few days would be a shame. Being sold to a black market would most likely be a death sentence. The redhead continued to back up until she hit something with an oof. She turned and found a scowling Zuko behind her. “What are you doing? We need to go now.” 

Trinity instantly ran behind him with a quick nod. The man that was following her sneered as he past Zuko and went up the ramp. She walked close behind him. The thought of dangerous people like that guy never crossed her mind before. She didn't know why. It only took five minutes for her to be captured and less than twenty-four for it to happen again. Human trafficking wasn't something she ever thought she'd run into in her life. It was a practice only heard in news reports and documentaries. For it to almost happen so easily and quickly was scary.

“Your headache is most likely the Avatar nearby.” Zuko’s voice was muffled in her head.

“Yeah, sure, okay.” She wasn’t really listening. Just the thought of getting away from the ship was on her mind. It was hard to believe that Zuko was the safest person around right now.

“Can you pinpoint his location?” 

She didn’t answer. They were almost to the ship, then she could relax. 

“Hey! Are you listening?”

“What?” Trinity looked up at a glaring Zuko. Was he talking this entire time?

“Can you pinpoint the Avatar’s location or not? You were able to tell me at the tower,” he growled slowly. 

It took her a few seconds to realize what he was talking about. “I don’t even know if it is that. Even if it is, I don’t know how it works.” 

Zuko growled, turning to Iroh, who was only a few places behind them with a monkey statue in hand. “Uncle, have the captain give me a detailed map of this area. I’ll get the rest of the crew to get the small boat ready. Take the girl with you.” He marched off. Trinity instantly felt vulnerable when he left. She quickly trotted over to Iroh rubbing her temple. 

"Does the Avatar being near cause you pain?" he questioned, placing a hand on her shoulder. 

She shook her head, "It's not really painful, just annoying. Like I can't focus very well." 

"Hmm, maybe meditation will help."

They both started up the ramp of Zuko's ship. “After we get the captain, I can show you how.” She only nodded as she followed into the boat. 

It had been three days since Trinity was found in the woods. An MRI, CT scan, and various blood workups couldn’t determine what was wrong with her. Her family sat in the hospital waiting room for results on an EEG. Nathan kept to himself while his father tried his best to comfort his poor worried mother. His foot repeatedly tapped against the white tile floor as he starred a hole into the wall across from him. The only thing on Nathan's mind repeated over and over again. Was the purple lady real? He saw her, there was no denying that. But why now? What was different? What happened in those woods? 

"Hale," a nurse called out, pulling him out of his thoughts. The small family made their way further into the hospital. Once they entered Trinity's room, Ella let out a soft gasp. The family hadn't seen her since she was dropped off due to all the tests. She was no longer in her regular clothes with a blanket covering her. Dressed in a hospital gown, several tubes and cords were hooked to her body from head to toe. A tube down her throat to connected to a respirator. The day after she arrived, the doctor called, saying she had some kind of attack. She stopped breathing for an entire minute, long enough to potentially cause brain damage. The headpiece with more cords was a result of the EEG to make sure she wasn’t brain dead. An intravenous catheter in her arm hooked up to a fluid drip. Nathan turned his head away from her. The neurologist made his way into the room, clearing his throat.

“I’m doctor Gnomes. It nice to meet you all though I wish it was under better circumstances.”

Nathan took another quick glance at his sister. The tube down her throat made him turn away again. “How long does she need to be on the respirator,” he mumbled out. 

“We’ll try to pull it at the end of the day. We just wanted to ensure she wouldn’t have another episode during testing. She seems to be breathing fine on her own for now.”

Victor pulled his wife closer when he felt her shoulders start to shake. "Did this new test show anything?" he questioned, not being able to take his eyes off his daughter.

"Well, yes, but it also caused some more questions." Gnomes walked over to Trinity, standing next to her bed and sighed before continuing. “She’s not brain dead, which is excellent news. We think that the attack she had was a seizure. That, in combination with her breathing stopping for a minute, we were afraid that her brain wouldn’t be able to handle it.” 

"So, what are the questions?" Nathan spoke up this time.

"Well, physically, she's presenting as a typical coma patient. She's completely unresponsive to light, sound, and pain. What is weird about her case is that her brain is as active as if she were asleep, not in a coma."

Victor looked confused, "Aren't coma patients just asleep, anyway?"

"A common misconception. A coma patient's brain activity is relatively low, though not inactive," Gomes gestured toward Trinity's head. "While someone who is sleeping has high brain activity. It's almost like she's dreaming a very vivid dream."

"What can we do now? Is there any chance she’ll wake up?" Ella asked, walking over to her comatose daughter. She placed a hand on her cheek, stroking it with her thumb.

"If this behaves like a normal coma, she hopefully will wake up in a few days to a few weeks and..."

"What if she doesn't?" Nathan interrupted. This already didn't seem right to him. If this purple woman had anything to do with this, Trinity wouldn't wake up.

"It's rare for people to be in a coma for more than a few weeks..."

"That's not what I'm asking. I want to know what happens if my sister doesn't wake up."

"Nathan..." Victor interrupted.

"I want to know," he said his voice firm. He knew what would happen, but he needed to hear it. He needed to hear how dier the situation was.

"If she's comatose for more than a month, it is highly unlikely she will wake up. At that point, she will go on life support. For how long is a decision made by you, her family."

Ella’s sobs filled the room as she draped her body over her daughters. Victor embraced her, trying to comfort her as much as he could. The doctor sighed, "I'll leave you guys alone for a while. I would like to talk to more about her blackouts and schizophrenia to try and piece together this puzzle. Buzz the nurse when you're ready to talk."

The doctor walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him. The family stayed there in silence with no sounds other than the monitors, machines, and Ella's soft cries. Nathan still couldn't look at his sister, walking over next to his parents.

"She's going to wake up Ella, she always does," Victor whispered.

Nathan wanted to believe that, in fact, he should believe that...right? His mind was battling with itself. On the one hand, everything that the doctor said rang true. Everything he had been studying in med school, other than her complications, was textbook. On the other hand, the purple lady, he saw her. For the first time in years, he saw her, and he couldn't tell if she was real or not. If she was real, then that threw a wrench in not only this but his entire thought process on his sister. Maybe she wasn't mentally ill this whole time. Perhaps she was telling the truth. That's what he needed right now; the truth. He needed to find out what was real and what was fake. The only problem was where he should start. Finding an entity that may or may not be real would be hard enough, but the one person that could lead straight to it was in a coma. His father's voice interrupted his thoughts, "I'm going to call the nurse in. The sooner we answer their questions, the sooner she'll wake up."

A light bulb went off in Nathans's head. "Hey, dad, where is all of Trinity's stuff?"

"On the shelf next to the window," he whispered.

Nathan quietly walked over to the shelf, rifling through his sister's things. He found her cracked phone after a few seconds of looking at all the alerts. He didn't know any of her friends, but assuming that this Allen guy had called her over ten times and sent double the amount of texts, would be his closest bet. She had to have told him something about the purple lady. Nathan walked up next to his sister, gently grabbing her hand, rubbing his thumb against the back. Though Trinity was hooked up to many machines, she looked almost peaceful. She wasn’t angry with him or yelling at him. He leaned over and kissed her forehead.

"I'm going to find out what happened to you," he whispered, turning her hand over and using her thumb to open her phone.

He stood back up, walking toward the exit. "I have to make a phone call right quick," he announced to his parents before he walked out of the room. He immediately went to her contacts, only seeing four people: Mom, Dad, Allen, and himself. Surely she had more people than that she could talk to. He passed that thought out of his head and called Allen's number. It picked up almost immediately. "H-hello, Trinity?"

"No, this is her brother."

"O-oh, i-is she okay-kay?"

Nathan stayed silent for a moment. He’d rather not divulge the entire situation over the phone and didn’t want his parents to accidentally hear him. "Listen, is there any way I can meet up with you? Maybe after your classes?"

"I-I can ditch s-school ri-right now."

"Wait, what?"

"Meet m-me out s-side the school on the side. T-there's a door-or with no c-cameras, so no one will see-ee you."

"I'm not..." the phone hung up before Nathan could finish. He could only stare at the phone for a second before putting it back in his pocket. Nathan slowly walked back into the hospital room, contemplating whether he should actually pick Trinity’s friend up or not. Watching from the doorway, his parents were still huddled around his sister, his father still trying to comfort his mother. Though Victor was strong for Ella, he could see the tears threatening to fall from his eyes. Nathan took in a deep breath hardening his resolve. He had to do this. Had to try at least; for the sake of his family. He walked over to his parents and wrapped his arms around both of them in a light hug. "I have to go."

Victor looked up to him, "You're not going to stay for the doctor?"

"I need to tell my teachers that I had a family emergency and won't be in classes for a little bit. I don't have all of their numbers, so I'll head to the school to let the front office know," he lied smoothly. There was no reason to tell his parents that he was about to break a high school student out of school to get information on the purple lady. His father nodded, grabbing his hand and squeezing it.

"We'll send you updates, okay." Nathan nodded, giving his mother a quick kiss on the temple before leaving the room. As he got into his car, he hoped that this kid, Allen, knew at least something about this thing following his sister around. There was a small chance that she had not told him anything about it, and this would sound absolutely ridiculous. Nathan gripped the wheel a bit tighter as he pulled up to the school. Allen never specified which side to the school to meet on. He slowly drove past the front of the school to the left side, noticing a tall kid leaning against the wall, looking around. As soon as he saw the car, the kid ran up, knocking on the window, still looking around. Nathan unlocked the vehicle, and the high school boy climbed in, placing his bag in between his legs.

"You're Allen, right?"

"I-it would be real-lly a-awkward if I wasn't-t. A-a-a strange guy ju-just g-getting in your car-r like this."

They both stared at each other for a second Nathan's face looking confused before Allen spoke up, "S-so are we-we going to g-go, or..."

"Yeah...yeah." Nathan pulled out of the school, quickly driving to the nearest coffee shop. He pulled into a Starbucks, and they both got out of the car. "Je-jeez c-c-couldn't g-go to a place with act-actual food."

"We're not here to eat, we're here to talk."

"I fe-feel like d-doing b-both is a fair option-n."

Nathan sent a glare Allen’s way before rolling his eyes, walking toward the doors. 

"Guess-ss not," Allen muttered, walking in behind him. The smell of coffee smacked both of them in the face as they walked in. Thankfully it wasn’t too crowded this late in the morning. Nathan went up to the front counter, ordering himself a coffee, "Do you want anything?"

Allen looking around and grabbed a cookie off the shelf, "This is f-fine."

They both waited off to the side in awkward silence, Nathan refusing to look Allen's direction. The lanky teen rocked back and forth on his feet, nibbling on the cookie he got. Once Nathan's name was called, he grabbed his coffee and made his way to a table in the far corner as far away from other people as possible. As soon as they sat down, Allen was the first one to speak.

"S-s-so, what's go-going on? Where's Tr-trinity?"

Nathan took a sip of his coffee before answering. "Trinity is in the hospital."

"O-oh, she bl-blacked-d out again-n." Allen didn't seem concerned at all. Nathan wondered how often his sister blacked out. "She didn't h-hit her on a rock-ck again, d-did she? Man, she was pi-pissed the first time c-cuz they had-d to shave some o-of her hair..."

"She's in a coma," Nathan interrupted.

Allen stopped and stared at Nathan with wide eyes. "W-wha? H-h-how," Allen's voice was hushed. He couldn't seem to finish a sentence.

"She was found deep in the woods next to your school three days ago."

Allen's eye wandered off to the side, thinking about what happened just three days ago. His head shot up, "Th-those bastards must have-ve caught her," he growled, quickly standing up from his seat, grabbing his bag.

Nathan stood to grab Allen's arm before he could walk away, "What? Who?"

"Some a-assholes. I wa-was able t-t-to distract them-m lo-long ee-enough for T-trinity to run, but they-ey must have caught-caught up to her some-somehow."

"So, you think they did something to her?"

"I-I-I wouldn't p-put it past them."

Nathan sighed through his nose. The thought of someone harming his sister made his blood boil, but he needed to remain calm. If some idiots did something to her, that was an entirely different scenario. A hard enough knock to the head could cause some brain damage, especially if she hit her head on a sharp rock when she was knocked out. If that were the case, why would the purple lady show herself? Not to mention, the doctors didn't speak of any head trauma, so that couldn't have been it. Nathan rubbed his temples, he needed more information. "We'll deal with that later, sit back down."

"W-what? Why..."

"Allen..."

Allen glared at Nathan before sitting back down in his seat, followed by Nathan. "S-s-so what is a-all this about th-then. Just to-o tell me that Tr-trinity is never w-waking u-u-up or what?" Allen's voice was low, slightly shaking.

Nathan tilted his coffee cup back and forth before answering slowly, "Do you know anything about the purple lady?"

Allen looked up, confused for a second. Nathan's heart slightly sunk at the look. Maybe he didn't know anything. 

"Yeah, w-what about her-er?"

"So, my sister has mentioned her before?"

"Yeah, I-I-I me-mean how c-could she not. Th-that thing has be-been following her-er a-around for years. I've-I've never be-been able to s-see her my-myself, but I've tried-d."

"Did she give you any information about her? Any clues about who she was and where she came from."

"I d-don't th-think so, I-I-I don't know. Wha-what does this h-have to-to do with Trinity being-ing in a c-coma?"

Nathan huffed, rubbing his temples. Allen was useless, so where could he go from here. Trinity had no other contacts on her phone. Maybe her doctor, or a guidance counselor. Nathan was ripped out of his thought when Allen grabbed his shoulder, shaking it lightly.

"What?" Nathan responded sharply. Now that Allen had no use to him, he no longer wanted to deal with him. He needed to figure out his next steps.

"Sh-she's the reason, i-isn't she?"

Nathan looked off to the side, "It's no longer any of your business."

Allen's look of shock quickly changed to one of anger. "N-n-none of-f m-my...ex-ex-excuse m-me." Allen huffed. It got harder to talk when he was mad, but damn was this man infuriating. How dare he claim such nonsense. "Tr-Tr-Trinity is m-m-my be-best fri-fri-friend and-and-and ha-has been-been-been for a-a very l-long time. When-when some-something-g hap-happens to h-her, then it-it-it is m-my b-b-business."

"You don't have any useful information. What value could you bring to the situation?"

Allen's fist clenched under the table. Moments like these were when he hated his stutter the most. People brushed him off, acted like he wasn't serious. The more they ignored him, the angrier he would get, the harder it would get to a sentence out straight. Then they would disregard him further. It was a vicious, infuriating cycle. The only thing Allen could think of doing is hitting Nathan, where it would hurt the most. "O-oh, I d-don't ha-have any u-useful in-information, s-s-says the per-person tha-that barley kn-kn-knows his own-own sis-sis-sister!" The teen slightly winced. He tried his best not to stutter as much to have a better impact, but he was just so mad. 

"What?" Nathan growled.

Allen almost sighed in relief. Somehow his sentence made it through. The teenager hardened his resolve. If he was going get in on this, Nathan needed to know he was serious. "H-how of-often d-do you-you even talk t-to her any-anyway. D-d-do you kn-know a-anything ab-about what she-e l-likes? W-what she f-f-fears? Wha-what she ha-has to g-g-go through ev-ev-every day see-seeing that-that thing."

Nathan looked off to the side with a scowl on his face. There was nothing he could retort with. He didn't know. His relationship with his sister was more than just strained, it was broken. It was never meant to be like that.

Allen could almost jump for joy. This was working. With newfound confidence, he continued, "O-oh, th-that’s right. You-you don't e-even be-be-believe that-that what Tr-trinity's seeing i-i-is real, s-so how-how c-could you po-possibly..."

"I saw her," Nathan responded quietly.

Allen stopped his rant with a shocked look, "You...y-you what?"

"I saw her," Nathan answered more firmly. "When I found Trinity, she was there, waiting for me."

It took a solid minute for Allen to respond again. All the anger flooded out of his body, being replaced with a slight chill up his spine. "Wha-what h-happened when you s-saw her. You-you didn’t bl-blackout, d-did you? Did-did she say anyth-thing, or..."

"No."

Allen went silent again. So Nathan had seen her too? Why would the purple lady suddenly revile herself to him? Was she trying to switch bodies? Maybe Trinity was no longer useful. Allen realized that Nathan was probably asking the same questions in his own head. He sighed, "I-I-I think I kn-know a f-few ways to learn mo-more about her."

Nathan looked up at him; his eyebrow quirked, "What would that be."

"A-ah, ah," Allen began shaking his head. "F-first things first-st, I wa-want in. Whatever y-you do in-involving the p-purple woman, I-I want t-to know about it-t."

"What, because you're her best friend?" Nathan droned. 

"Well, y-yea, that, but-but-but if you f-find something ne-new about h-her, I-I could be useful. What if-if Trinity to-told me someth-thing that could str-string two cl-clues t-together? Y-you'd be shit out of l-luck." Allen leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms with a smirk. 

Nathan growled to himself, tapping his fingers against the table, eventually sighing. "Fine, when I find out anything, I'll contact you."

Allen smiled at his small victory, "G-good." He couldn't help but feel proud of himself. For the first time, his stutter didn't hinder the argument. He'd have to tell Trinity when she woke up. She would be so happy for him. 

"But I'm not breaking you out of school again or doing any other weird stuff. This is serious, not some adventure game."

Allen waved him off, "Y-yeah yeah, I-I can br-break myself out any-anyway. N-no big d-deal."

Nathan dragged his palm down his face with a rough sigh, "Well, what do you got then?"

"O-oh, yeah! We sh-should check her-her ske-sketchbook first. That w-w-would be the-the easiest thing."

"How's a drawing going help?"

"She some-sometimes w-writes things in there, like-like-like notes and stuff. M-maybe she wrote someth-thing im-important."

Nathan only nodded at his answer. He was right; searching her sketchbook would an easy thing to do. Maybe his sister drew a diagram of some sort. 

"Al-also, we-we should s-search for her room. She-she should have a-a-a journal i-in there some-somewhere."

"She doesn't seem like the type to keep a diary," Nathan said back a little confused.

"D-doctors forced her to-to a few years b-back. She's long s-s-stopped writing in it, b-but once again, there-there c-could be-be some im-important information in-n it."

Nathan wasn't shocked that her doctor made her keep a journal. It was an excellent way to keep track of anyone with psychological issues. A ping of guilt hit him as the thought crossed his mind. His sister was never really crazy after all these years. It was all real. Then an idea smacked him like a ton of bricks. "We should check the internet and library as well." Nathan started getting up from the stool.

"W-why's that?"

"What Trinity has been going through, it's possibly real. This could have happened to someone else. Hell, it could be happening to some else right now."

Allen nodded, standing as well. "It-it w-wouldn't surprise me if s-someone out-out there w-wrote a-a-a blog ab-about it online or-or-or s-something. Don't kn-know what a-a-a li-library would have, though."

"Books, Allen. Libraries have books." Both boys began to walk out of the shop and head toward the car. 

"I-I-I-I know th-that! I'm as-asking w-what does it-it have to o-offer us, j-j-jackass." Allen mumbled his last word to himself.

"I heard that, and there is potential someone wrote about this thing in a book." 

"I-I-I guess, but your-your t-taking books, I'll ta-take the inter-internet."

"Whatever." Nathan rolled his eyes. "I'm bringing you back to school. I'll pick you up tomorrow after your classes. We can search her room then." 

"F-fine, fine. You-you're n-no fun," Allen sighed.

Nathan couldn't help but roll his eyes again. Allen might be an unorthodox partner, but at least he was a start. It was better than starting from nothing.

Finding the captain and getting a hold of the map was easy enough. Boarding the small boat wait to depart, she wasn't bothered by either. When a load of dirty, sketchy pirates also boarded, including the one she encountered on the ramp, that's when Trinity had a problem. As the sun started to set, they sailed off to a nearby river. A deep fog started to roll over the crew. The headache changed from an annoying feeling to a rhythmic pulsing that radiated throughout her head. Though only a handful of the pirates stayed on the small boat with them, Trinity still clung to Iroh like glue. There was no way she was going to be left alone with these guys. Trinity saw some of the pirates look at her then whisper to another. She scooted closer to Iroh until her arm touched his. "Are you alright?" 

She didn't take her eyes off the pirates, eyeing her, "Uh, yeah. I'm fine." 

"How is your head.” 

“It's umm,” She closed her eye, trying to think of how to describe what she felt. “It’s like a heartbeat in my head. It still doesn’t hurt just,” She rubbed her palm on her forehead. Between the pirates and her head, it was hard to come up with a complete thought. Iroh turned toward her, still cross-legged. “Face me if you could.” Trinity turned herself to the old man. 

“There are different types of meditation, but we are going to try concentration meditation.”

“I didn’t know they're different types.”

“It depends on what you are trying to achieve.” Iroh grabbed her hands, placing them palm up in her lap. “Now, you must close your eyes and relax. Anything troubling your mind, let go of.”

Trinity couldn’t help but look behind her at the pirates, “I don’t think...” 

“I will remain with you. Do not worry.” 

She eventually nodded, letting out a huff turning back. “Okay, relax. Got it.” Trinity took a couple deep breathes, trying to calm herself down. Without thinking, she started to count in her head. Her body seemed to naturally relax after about thirty seconds, her eyelids fully relaxing. The pulsing in her became the only thing on her mind. Her imagination created a purple color that lit up with the beat. The light started to focus on one point, then moved to the left. Unconsciously, she moved her head to the left, trying to look for the source of the light. Iroh watched Trinity in awe. After a minute, not only did the girl relax, but her body started to glow in the same pattern as it did before. It was slightly different. The light was not as bright, and it blinked on and off in a rhythm. 

“Prince Zuko, come quickly,” he whispered to not disturb her meditation.

Zuko was at the bow with the captain of the pirates keeping an eye on the shore. He made sure to tell someone to take his place before walking over to his uncle. 

“What is...” he stopped when he saw the girl glowing. “What is happening?”

“I believe she is searching for the Avatar.”

“So, she can find him?”

“I don’t think she can detain an accurate location but the general direction.”

Both men noticed her head-turning further to the left. “Sail closer to the left side of the shore. Keep an eye out for anybody,” Zuko called out. His yell snapped Trinity out of her trance. Her eyes shot open, and the glow disappeared. The pulse in her head went back to radiating around her entire skull. The instant change in her brain caused her to get dizzy. She started to fall back, but Iroh caught her with his arm.

“How did that go?” 

“I think. I think I found him. Or at least he's somewhere nearby.” 

“We know. You seemed to point us in the right direction without meaning to.”

“Oh, okay.” She felt drained though it seemed like the task required little effort.

“We see someone,” One of the pirates called to the crew. 

“Capture them at once!" the captain yelled. All the pirates jumped off the small boat onto the shore. 

“Uncle, c’mon. It’s the water bending girl.” 

Iroh gently rested Trinity against the wall, “We should be right back.” 

Trinity didn’t necessarily hear what he said. Her head was too much in a daze. The pulsing beat was so loud it was causing her ears to ring. She laid against the wall closing her eyes. Maybe a nap wasn’t a bad idea. 

An unknown amount of time past when Trinity’s eyes shot open. The wind was whipping by as the boat sailing full speed down the river. Looking around, there was nothing it pirates on the ship, no sign of Iroh or Zuko. Panic started to set in. Where were they? What happened? She rubbed her temple, the pulsing was still going strong. 

"Hey there, girly, it looks like you're on the wrong side." Trinity turned and found the same pirate she ran into at the front of their boat. She gulped backing further into the wall when he grabbed her, holding her hands behind her back.

"Hey Barker, how much do you think we could get off of her?"

The skinny pirate in green walked over, looking her over. "She's strange looking indeed."

"That's a little rude, don't you think." Trinity struggled against the man holding her.

"If anything, that eye of hers should mark up the price, right?" The pirate holding her tighter as she struggled. 

"Keep her if you want, but if we score this Avatar, we won't need her," Barker started walking away.

"Well, that means I'm going to keep for my own. Unless selling ya gives me more money." He started to walk her to the back of the boat.

"Listen, I'm nothing but trouble. I probably won't sell for much."

"I'll be the judge of that."

Barker poked his head around the corner. "Eamon, put that girl away and help us. We're coming up on the boat."

"You stay here. I'll come back for you," Eamon grumbled, walking away.

As soon as he was out of sight, she looked for a way off the boat. Going to the controls of the ship was a no go, she didn't know how to drive it. There was no safety raft to take either. Her only option was to jump. She looked over the edge of the boat. Jumping might not be the best idea, but it was the only option she could think of with her head booming. Fighting wouldn’t work, running in circles around the ship was stupid. Being sold to the black market or worse being owned by Eamon was a no go. She leaned over the rail, "Okay, okay. You can do this." 

Trinity looked around again and noticed the pirates jump off the small vessel onto the bigger ship. She relaxed. With them gone, she had nothing to worry about. The boat slowed, falling behind to wooden one. Maybe she could figure out how to stop it or at least get it close to the shore. Trinity trotted to the control room, which was just a hole to shovel coal in and a wheel. Trying to rotate the wheel was harder than it looked. She was able to move it just a bit, but there was no way she could turn it to shore. 

“Well, this is mildly concerning.” She ran back out to the front of the boat to see it was heading straight for the wooden ship about to crash. 

“Alright, now it’s very concerning.” The redhead had to act fast. She couldn’t slow the boat, she couldn’t turn it. Trinity looked over the edge again. Her mind swapped back and forth between jumping and crashing. If a boat crash was anywhere near as bad as a car crash, she wanted no part of it. Trinity took a deep breath, “Alright, just jump and swim, jump and swim. That’s it. That’s all you gotta do.” She backed up from the edge letting out another puff of air. Taking a running start, she made for the ledge but stopped before jumping. 

“Ah shit, this sucks,” she ruffled her hair, pacing back and forth. Looking over, the boat she was on was going to hit the other in minutes. She had to jump. Trinity backed up again, held her breath, and jumped into the water. As soon as she hit, she bounced right off the surface only to plunge into its depths a second later. The impact knocked the wind out of her causing the air in her lungs to leave her body. Trying to swim immediately became impossible, with the water racing in one direction. Her lungs started to burn as the water slung her downstream. She couldn't see anything but bubbles and blue. Waving her arms, she tried to swim to the surface, but her arms pushed back. Her vision started to go black. The last bit of air began to leave her lungs as she began to sink. Just before she lost consciousness, she felt something surge through her. A familiar purple light quickly replaced the black as water rushed around her in a purple-colored cyclone. The cyclone surrounded her pushing her up toward the surface.

Zuko looked over the ledge in despair. His boat was gone. The Avatar was gone. The icing on the cake; this was all a complete waste of time because of his uncle.

"You know Prince Zuko, you should look at the positives. You saw which way the Avatar was headed, and I have a handsome monkey statue back on the ship." Zuko turned around, marching away from the ledge, "There's nothing positive about this, Uncle. This was a complete waste of time."

Iroh followed behind, "Well, maybe we can brew up a nice cup of tea and relax our nerves," he said, closing his eyes, pretending to smell the tea in the air. Once he opened his eyes, Zuko was gone. "Price Zuko?"

Zuko marched down the shore. He just wanted to get back to his ship and sail north. As he walked, his body felt weird, like pins and needles covered his skin. Zuko rubbed his hands over his arms. This was different than the usual loss of adrenalin he'd get after a fight with the Avatar. He felt his inner fire burn like a monster trying to be released. Something was pulling it toward the water like it was trying to connect with it. What was even stranger, he felt more powerful, almost like the sun itself was trying to give him strength. His breath quickened as goosebumps freckled across his skin. Zuko looked over to the river. What was causing this strange feeling, and why was it coming from the water?

A purple glow caught his eye in the stretch of blue. The light reminded him of that girl, who was on the boat, that went over the waterfall. Zuko’s eye’s widened, “Oh shi...” The water exploded out in a monstrous cyclone pushing out the red-headed girl. Trinity glowed purple with the same symbols dancing wildly across her skin, but this was different than the other instances. One of her eyes shone with a brilliant purple while the other remained shut. Long tendrils of purple light flowed out of her body, following the flow of the cyclone downwards. Zuko stood in shock, unable to move. Was she a water bender? Did she lie to them? The twister started to move toward the shore, Zuko instantly began to back away. As it got closer, he noticed the girl wasn't moving as a water bender would, in fact, she almost seemed to levitate in the eye. The streams of water looked as if they were being held up by the purple light like it was doing the bending. 

Several of the light beams flowing with the water started to fan out in different directions, causing some of the water to fall lifeless. Some sinking into the earth while others floated away like the wind. A few of the rays made their way over to him, swirling around in a fire like a pattern. Zuko moved away from the light streaks, unsure what to make of them, but they followed. The strange, powerful feeling almost hurt as the light beams flowed around him. It was like the light was pulling the fire out of him. He felt himself start to sweat, and his hands begin to smoke. Zuko grabbed his wrist as the urge to release an explosion of flames almost took over him. The cyclone bent, placing the girl down gently on the sand. Each beam surrounding the water and him flowed back into her body, and the funnel fell apart in a big splash. As the lights disappeared into the girl, the strange power surge seemed to fade as well. The sudden loss of that feeling almost made him dizzy. What the hell was that? Zuko took a few deep breaths before shaking his head then looked over to the girl. What should he do? Should he approach her? Would she attack him? Why wasn't she moving? He stood for a couple more seconds before running up to Trinity. Just as Zuko reached her, he heard his uncle calling him downstream.

"Over here, Uncle!"

Iroh trotted over to Zuko, who was holding an unconscious Trinity in his arms. "Did she blackout again?" Iroh asked, kneeling down next to the two of them, taking a closer look. His eyes widened after a second, "Lay her on her back Prince Zuko, she is not breathing."

"What?" he said, laying her on her back then putting his ear by her mouth. Iroh immediately started doing chest compressions. He didn’t even think to check her breathing. A water bender or not, the girl was useful. 

"Prince Zuko, lift her chin up and when I tell you to breathe, hold her nose and breathe into her mouth." Zuko nodded, paying close attention to his uncle. Despite being at sea for so long, this was the first time he had to do something like this. Tao and the rest of the medical team took care of these kinds of situations.

"Breathe." 

Zuko covered her nose and blew as hard as he could into her mouth. Nothing happened when he sat up. Did he do it wrong? He looked at his uncle almost in a panic. Iroh was, though concerned, calm, continuing the compressions. Zuko tried this best to slow his rapidly beating heart and took a deep breath. 

"Breathe."

Zuko repeated the act of again, with once again no response. He had to be doing this wrong. It never took this long, right? How long had it been? Thirty seconds? A minute? How long did she have? Was she going to die? Now he was really starting to panic. This girl couldn't die. Now that he knew she could actually track the Avatar, she was essential. Iroh bent over to listen for the girl's breathing, then went back to the compressions.

"W-we should take her back..."

"It's too far, she won't make it. Breathe."

Zuko hesitated, "I-I don't think..."

"Zuko!" Iroh yelled, causing Zuko to jump. Filling his lungs as much as he could, he tried again. This had to work; she couldn't die. The teen leaned up, waiting for a response, something anything. 

Suddenly, Trinity sat up, coughed up water and gasping for air.

"Oh, thank goodness you're alright," Iroh sighed, leaning back on his hands.

She leaned back on the ground taking in a few more breaths before opening her eyes. Zuko didn't comment nor make known the wash of relief he felt when she took her first breath. He did, however, take notice of the glow of purple, leaving her grey eye as it opened. What the hell was this girl? A water bender, an avatar tracker? Zuko was no expert on water bending, but he had never seen anything like that except from...

"What happened?” Iroh questioned, interrupting Zuko's thoughts. 

"I... jumped..." she breathed.

"At that speed? That was..."

“Are you a water bender?” Zuko uninterrupted his uncle. The question slipped out of his mouth before he could halt it, but he needed to know. Iroh looked at his nephew in confusion. Why would he ask that? Because she survived the jump?

“What do you mean?” Trinity was confused; what was water bending again? Trying the think caused her head to swim. 

“You shot out of the water in a cyclone. The only water bender around just took off on a bison.” Her response was frustrating. All he needed was a yes or a no. 

She looked down, trying to remember. All she could recall was jumping out of the boat and struggling to swim and breathe. Then darkness hit her while her lungs felt like fire. 

“No, I can’t. I don’t...” It was hard to think. Her throat and lungs were burning, and her chest had stabbing pain on the left side. 

“I saw you...”

“Prince Zuko stop. We will talk about this when we get back to the ship.” Iroh's voice was stern. Whatever his nephew saw could wait until later. 

Zuko opened his mouth to respond but then closed it again. He huffed as he stood, bringing Trinity with him. “Can you stand on our own?”  
She lightly pushed off of him, swaying slightly before gaining her footing. “I should be fine, I think.” She slightly winced when she took the first steps forward. The prince turned and started to march off without another word. “Are you sure your alright.” Trinity only nodded following in Zuko’s path. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to walk. The adrenaline was starting to wear off, and she instantly felt like she might pass out again. Once they got to the ship, Iroh turned to her. "I would suggest we go see Tao to make sure you are alright." 

Trinity shook her head, "I'm okay, I would just like to lay down for a while." The walk back to the ship was agonizing. It took everything she had to not show it to both men. She just wanted some sleep. 

Iroh hummed in response. He didn't agree with that, but a few hours of rest wouldn't hurt. They had been awake for more than twenty-four hours. Maybe assigning someone outside her door wouldn't be a bad idea, though, just in case. 

The older man allowed Trinity to wander off to her room without a word. Iroh made sure to assign someone to her door before looking for his nephew. Asking if she was a water bender was out of the blue unless he saw something that proved otherwise. He found Zuko on the bow of the ship looking toward the sun. “You’ve been up all night, Prince Zuko. Why not lay down for a while and rest.” 

He was spent for a while before responding, “That girl, did she tell you where she was from?”

“I don’t believe she is from any place that we would know. She seems to lack knowledge that even a child would understand.” 

“Do you remember when we first captured the Avatar. There was a moment when he fell off the boat and into the ocean. Seconds after that, he shot back out in a huge cyclone of water then used it to knock the other crew and me off the ship.” 

“I don’t recall that, but I believe I was still the inside at that time.” 

Zuko turned away from the sun, facing his uncle, “That girl did the same thing. That same technique without attacking me, of course.” He decided against telling his uncle about the beams of light or the weird feeling. Things were already too complicated as it was.

“That can’t be possible?”

“She could be lying to us. Claiming to not know things.” 

“It is possible, but if she truly was a water bender, there would be no reason for her to help us. She has not shown any sign that she is unwilling to capture the Avatar, has she?”

“No, she hasn’t. She was the one to offer help in the first place.” Zuko sighed to himself, turning back around to lean against the rail. None of this made any damn sense. If she was a water bender, why help them? If she wasn't, then what the hell was she? He needed to get some answers.

“There is also the state of her memory. Once again, she lacks basic information,” Iroh stated, stroking his beard. 

The statement made Zuko even more frustrated. “We’ll question her tomorrow. I want to know where she’s from and why she’s here.” 

“We should let her rest for a while...”

“We will question her tomorrow, Uncle. We need to know where her loyalties lie.”

Iroh nodded. There was no stopping his nephew from doing what he wanted. Even if he did try and stop Zuko, his nephew would just corner her when he wasn't around. If this questioning was going to happen, Iroh would rather be there than not. He only hoped Trinity would be prepared for such an interrogation. 

The trio flew thousands of miles above, as clouds whipped by. Though the water tribe siblings were celebrating getting out of a sticky situation, the young monk with them stayed silent. The young girl with them noticed his puzzled look and crawled up to the bison’s head. “Aang, are you alright?” 

Almost snapping out of his concentration, Aang gave the girl a big smile. “Yeah, I’m okay, Katara. It’s just...” he trailed off into thought again. 

“What is it?” She scooted up close to sit next to him. 

“You know that weird feeling I told you about on Roku’s island.” 

“Yeah. Didn’t you think it was Avatar Roku trying to connect with you?” 

“That’s what I thought at first, but I felt it again.” 

“Again? When?”

“I felt it a little bit after we left the market, and then it got stronger when Zuko came after us.” 

“So it wasn’t Roku?” Sokka asked, pushing himself in between the two of them.” 

“I don’t know. Maybe Roku's trying to contact me again?” 

“I thought the whole point of risking our lives flying into the fire nation was to contact him?! We’re not doing that again. Nope, Nah-uh.” Sokka moved back to the saddle sitting back with his arms crossed. 

“Even if we went back, I couldn’t talk to him without the solstice. It must be something else.” 

“Maybe you're getting sick.” Katara placed a hand on Aang's forehead. He felt fine. 

Aang shook his head though smiled at the concern, “It doesn’t feel like that. It feels different.” 

“Maybe you just need to poop.” 

“Sokka!” 

“What, it’s freeing.” 

Katara rolled her eyes, turning back to Aang. “We’ll figure out Aang, don’t worry.” The young monk only nodded as they flew into the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, another chapter down! Not going to lie, I've been a bit nervous about this one. It lays down some pretty essential ground rules for the rest of the story. Hopefully, I described everything to where it makes sense, at least a little bit. Tell me what you think! I hope everybody is staying safe in this crazy year we're living in. Thanks for reading :)


End file.
